The Status of our Updates

11.12.2009

It's no surprise that I love to write. In fact, despite all of my schooling in social work and all of the energy I've devoted to it, deep down inside I know that I'm a writer. And I have a hunch that the most satisfying and gratifying work I will accomplish in this world will be a fusion of the two. How they will come together and fuse is yet to be determined... but it will happen.

I used to write with great regularity, but haven't been doing so lately for a variety of reasons. Mostly because I don't have the time it takes to sit down and engage in the process of writing, but... I also think that there has been a shift in how we write, specifically in terms of how we write as a way to update and engage each other. A few years ago, blogs were the latest and greatest way to weave social media with personal narrative as a way to connect with friends and share parts of yourself with the world. These days, who has time to write, or read an entire blog? Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and a whole host of social networking sites, we have learned how to share "what we're up to", or "what's on our mind" in a limited amount of characters. While this is fun, easily accessible and totally acceptable in 2009, it feels cheap. By knowing what 200 of our nearest and dearest are up to in any given moment, we are losing something; we are giving up quality for quantity.

Don't get me wrong, I love status updates! I have learned more interesting things about people from my past and present vis-a-vis the ubiquitious "what's on your mind" update, BUT, I do miss learning about and getting to know people through their words. And I don't mean through their 140 characters; I mean through their stories, narratives and shared experiences. I guess what I'm trying to say is that while I am an avid consumer of and participant in the world of snippet socialaztion, I miss the olden days of people sharing who they are, how they feel and what they think in a more contextual way. Simply put, I miss blogs.

That being said, I'm going to try to take a more balanced approach to how I update my status. I'd like to still share snippets on Facebook, but I'd also like to maintain a space where I can share stories, thoughts and observations more in-depth. For me, there is great value in writing blogs; facebook offers the social element and journaling offers the self-reflection stuff, but a blog is where those two worlds can intersect, and connect people on a deeper level.

So that's what I'm going to do. I hope you'll join me.

Now if only I could figure out what the intersection of social work and writing is :)

Stay tuned...

1 comments:

Unknown said...

welcome back! it's about dang time. glad we got to converse and share in person the other day ;)