Tag: Blogging

Writing in obscurity

More recently the idea of “lowest possible engagement” has come to represent much of what ails the social web: Likes, retweets, +1s – throwaway actions which have become the mainstay of our social interaction often at the expense of more meaningful responses.

Where people used to visit blogs and leave genuinely thoughtful comments or even write a response on their own blog the propensity is now to “plus one and run” at the site of the social share rather than at the original post itself.

Our self-imposed attention problems brought on by trying to follow too many people on too many social networks demand that we head for the easy solutions, the curated lists or groups, the bite size chunks of news in an attempt to consume as much in as short a time with the least effort as possible.

The focus on consumption leaves us with little or no time for reflection, response or even creation.Colin Walker

I find my self falling prey to all of this especially when I don't have anything meaningful to add in the moment but want to signal that I enjoyed what was posted. However, there are moments when I want to leave a response but I lack the time to cogently respond. Sometimes I save the link to Evernote with the intention to write something later.

The thing is, I often don't. Sometimes it's out of laziness. Sometimes I just can't get my thoughts in order ( see the tag line to this blog ).

What ever the reasons for my lack of effort, I think Colin is right. I may have sold my soul and my voice to social media. What shall I do about that?

Back to the beginning; Khurt.com/blog will disappear in 2013

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I started blogging back in 2001 as Island in the Net. The blog was named for one of my favorite cyberpunk novels1, and described how I felt about my writing at the time. My blog was/is like a small island in the vast ocean of the Internet where I shared my thoughts about anything and everything.

I started writing more technical articles around 2003/2004 and Island in the Net was morphing into more of a technical how-to focused blog and less of a personal blog. I was also occasionally posting about my photography and my opinions on tech news and I felt it was not a great match for what the blog was becoming. I started to segment my interests and my develop a bit of hubris about my efforts.

Around 2007, I started two new blogs, Khürt/photos and Khürt/blog. One blog would be focused on my photography while another would be more of a Daring Fireball style link blog. Each blog would be focused on a particular aspect of ... me. The Khürt/blog lived briefly on Tumblr as Inchoate, a reference to the fact that my thoughts on many things were a jumble of partially baked ideas2. My top blog post on Khürt/blog in 2012 was about how people hated Apple. It had over 10,000 page views.

I retrospect, I think this was a mistake. I am not three separate people, nor am I a celebrity blogger. I am but one person with many interests. I like photography, and my Apple tech, and software and … . I want to put that all in one place. I’ve decided that Island in the Net will be my one and only personal blog. It will be focused on what Island in the Net originally was.

I will keep the khurt.com domain but will repurpose it3. All the content from the photography and personal blog will be imported4 into Island in the Net. I’ll still post my weekly photos and my tech reviews and my opinions on … well everything but they’ll be under one “brand”.

  1. Islands in the Net by Bruce Sterling. ↩ 
  2. in·cho·ate /in?k?-it/

Adjective
Just begun and so not fully formed or developed; rudimentary: "a still inchoate democracy".
 
Synonyms
inchoative - rudimentary

    ↩

  3. Something new launch in 2013 but I’m keeping it under wraps until I’m ready. ↩
  4. I love how easy this can be with WordPress but I’m crossing my fingers. ↩

I read stuff.

Beth writes about everything and anything. Her blog is worth reading.

Keeping a blog is like having my own editorial column for life. I greatly enjoy the experience.  The fact that there are numbers of people who choose to read what I write increases that joy. via WHO READS THIS STUFF? - wannabeme's posterous.

If the writing is good, people will read it and come back again and again. I love blogging. That's a meaningful statement coming from someone who disliked writing (but loved reading) and who struggled with it all my academic life.