« November 2007 | Main | January 2008 »
What's the quintessentially perfect Christmas gift?
A puppy, of course.
She named the 10-week-old Shih Tzu Grandy, after Tigers center fielder Curtis Granderson. He's somebody to talk to, to care for during the long, cold winter. And well after.
I can hear me now, asking my kids: "Are you going to be around this weekend? Grandma and Grandy are coming over ..."
I ordered something for my husband from an online vendor, and it was delivered to the house yesterday by FedEx.
Today I received an email from the vendor telling me their records indicate that the package has been delivered (which is nice of them; I don't recall ever receiving such a notice before). The email reads, in part:
DON'T HAVE YOUR SHIPMENT YET?
------------------------------
Art by Facebook friend, Alana Servis, drawn on daughter Susan's SuperWall.
Hugh is right, you know. From his post, Blogging is dead? According to whom?:
2007 has been all about :"Social Networks". With Facebook leading the charge, suddenly who you know seems far more interesting to the journalists than what you know. Screw the nodes, it's now all about the network, People. All about "The Social Graph", People. We no longer worry about what we have to say, we worry about who's controlling our data. We no longer talk about folk we know, like and admire, and what they're up to, we talk about hot-shot startups and how many billions Microsoft is going to pay for them ...
... If you have something to say, then a blog offers a cheap, easy global medium in which to express yourself. This is as true now as it was three years ago, regardless of what the groovy cats in Silicon Valley may be up to ...
... if you're one of these people considering giving up on blogging in exchange for paying more attention to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and MySpace, or whatever they throw at us mere mortals, bear in mind you are giving up on something rather unique and wonderful ...
Of course, Hugh McCleod's thing has been to build his own personal business brand via blogging. And he's had great success with the South African winery, Stormhoek, and other ventures. Not that he's eschewed Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. Not at all. But he's held to - and continued to build - his personal brand.
I don't have a business interest in building my brand. But I must say whatever I did build by blogging, here and at Coit Avenue, has dwindled considerably over the past year or so since my blogging efforts have tapered off. And why? For me, it's the fact that social networking is so much easier than blogging. And the feedback is so much more immediate.
But what of that feedback? What of 'results'? I now have 70 friends on Facebook (not bad for an 'oldster' with no claim to fame). I spend a fair amount of time each day reading and updating the daily mundane about and for that disparate 70 (too many of whom are my kids and their friends). And for what? There's no thinking or probing here, no exchange of thoughts or ideas, no synthesis and certainly no real conversation. Connection, yes. But nothing meaningful.
I guess my point is this: If the only way you connect is through social networking, it's like eating only desserts. It's sugary, fun and easy to take. But it always leaves me wanting more, and is, in the end, somehow unsatisfying. Blogging is the meal, the main course, the sustenance. Sure it is more work. But it is more productive. And more satisfying in the long run.
So will I cut back on the sugar, break out of the easy-ness of social networking and get back to balancing my self-expression with the more meaningful, satisfying work of blogging? No promises here (it's hard work, after all!) but if I know what's good for me ...
