Friday, October 06, 2006

The Dark Horse on Blogging

All week, I've been pondering the question of why we blog and was pretty stumped for an answer at first. Then it hit me.....

It's like asking why we email, online billpay, send instant messages, or listen to music on our iPods. It's all about progress! And as time goes by, many people, especially our children and grandchildren, soon have little use for postage stamps, handwritten letters, LPs and face-to-face interoffice chats with our co-workers.

I'm sort of left with a sense of melancholy. I applaud progress on all levels, particularly science and technology, but am trouble by the effects of this progress on us socially. We just don't connect to one another like we use to.

I was out to dinner with my ten year old daughter the other night and I looked up from an eBook that I was reading on my PalmPilot across the table to watch her bopping her head to the beats coming from her iPod earphones. It was the end of a school day, and granted I was feeling pretty crummy from an unproductive day, but instead of sharing the ins and outs on the events of the day we were disconnected, doing our own thing. I felt bad and suggested that we just talk. But she looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Talk??!! Why? She was fine.

Yeah, yeah, I know. Moms are pretty uncool dinner companions to any pre-teen or teenager, but her reaction still didn't sit well with me.

I was nostalgic for the good ole days. For a time when learning how to format a letter was a part of the curriculum for any English class, a time when the check really was "in the mail," and a time when a quick note to a friend was a "sticky note", thankfully had the appropriate number of vowels in each word and ended with a recognizable signature.

I work from home and have for the last six years. My address book on my computer is bigger than it was all those years ago. But I really miss popping my head over the cubicle wall and making plans to "ditch this Taco stand" and going to lunch out of the office for an extra half hour.

Blogging is great. We can network, promote, educate, vent frustrations, gossip, congratulate and celebrate through cyberspace to millions. Just don't forget how special it was when you last ran into your girlfriend in the Walmart, got a handwritten thank you note for that gift card (better than a gift right?) you sent to your godchild last Christmas , or hung out with your critique partner, who lives on the other side of the country or the world, at the RWA conference this year.

I can't wait to meet my fellow Mavens face-to-face and will be proud to be this group's Dark Horse (no pun intended) on blogging. (smile)

BTW.....My website is coming soon!!!(giggle - I may be resistant to change but I ain't stupid!)

1 comment:

J L said...

I think I agree somewhat with this -- why we blog. This blog we've got set up has given me a chance to see it in action. It sort of gives me a chance to respond to people personally and yet openly, as it were.

I think the working from home thing is problematic, sometimes. I have the best of both worlds because I work in an office but work at home 1 day a week (or more if the snow flies and I can't get past the drifts to get to the office). So I'm able to get away from my co-workers but can also socialize as needed.

This blogging thing may be fun after all. I just have to allocate an appropriate amount of time for it and not let it take over my life (as I let Ebay do for a time). I'm such a Gadget Gidget and Ebay is so tempting. But I really have to stop at 6 computers. I mean, I really do ...