Archive for the 'Online' Category
June 10 2010: I’ll See You On The Other Side
Filed under Life & Online with 15 Comments
You know, I’ve kind of always known this, but it’s now fully confirmed – I’m actually incredibly boring and mundane. I managed to fool everyone for a while there, with opinions, hobbies, and a bubbly personality. I had things to say, I had thoughts to contribute, I had parties to go to, I had people to see and add to my network. I was interesting, intriguing and fun to be around. Now I:
- Leave the house for work when it’s still dark, and return when it’s still dark
- Spend nights and weekends studying for my Masters
- Spend any spare time I have exercising in a vain attempt to lose some weight gained through indolence
- Spend recent days in the family home helping out after my father had an operation
As a result, not only do I not do anything interesting, I don’t have anything interesting to say, or any interesting opinions (or, any opinions) on current issues. I don’t read newspapers, or even catch up with world events through online sources. I simply don’t have time – I could technically read the paper on the commute to work, but that’s when I do my studying. When I do have something to say, it’s about mortgages, bank loans, tips on frugality, careers, freelancing opportunities, new jobs I’ve seen advertised. I no longer talk about holiday destinations – how do you afford non-work-related travel when you’re frantically saving to pay off a house before you’re old and grey?
In short, my current lifestyle, goals, and ambitions are so far away from who I was a year ago, and who I was when I started blogging, that I feel light years apart from you, the readers who have been following me since 2005. Most of you are still in high school or university. We no longer have anything in common. Some of you have started careers, become mothers, settled down. We perhaps have more in common, but I still feel as though I’m separate to you – largely because no one ever seems to be as obsessed with career and asset growth as myself.
The number of comments I receive per post has been steadily dropping. It might be because I’m no longer commenting on your posts (see: feeling disconnected), it might be because I’m no longer involved in social activity online, it might be because I don’t post as often anymore. But I think really, it’s because I’m now in a separate sphere to the personal bloggers I’ve spent my entire online life with.
I’ll see you all on the other side – when you’ve all become as mid-twenties and boringly settled as me.
March 8 2010: Well, Why The Fuck Indeed?
Filed under Life & Online with 13 Comments
Is it just me, or is everyone in this particular corner of the personal blogosphere starting to rethink/doubt their involvement in blogging? It seems as though I’ve read at least half a dozen blog entries in the past week surrounding the whole topic of: “Why the fuck do we put our lives on show and have we really considered the possibility of being dooced in this new web-savvy work environment?” Well I can tell you now – there’s no genuine reason for it.
For most of us, it’s just habit – we got used to writing for an audience when we started blogging in our teens and now that we’re approaching the ‘career’ part of our lives, it’s become a habit we can’t shake, despite whatever repercussions it may have for our professional careers. We like the attention. We like the feedback. We like the idea that despite how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of things, however small we really are in this huge diverse world of ours, someone out there values our opinions. For that one random person out there who follows our blog religiously – we are someone who matters.
It gives you an enormous sense of self-validation. So what if you fight with your family, if you’re insecure about your relationship, if you feel like you don’t have any real friends, if you feel like there’s a million things wrong with your life? PEOPLE on the INTERNET care about you! There is PURPOSE to your LIFE! Your VOICE is being HEARD!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is why however absent I may be from this blog from time to time, I would never ever find it in my heart to abandon blogging altogether. There will be times in my life when nothing will go right. When that happens, I know I can always come back and open up on this blog, and find people who care about me. These people will be inspiration enough to get over whatever hurdle I’m facing, and work towards something better.
February 22 2010: Particularly Absent, But With Reason
Filed under Online with 11 Comments
I’ve been particularly absent from the online community in recent months, and have even deliberately cut back on accounts I hold online. I have deleted both my Twitter account and my Snark Forums account. LiveJournal has been downsized, Formspring has been deactivated, Google Reader has been downsized, and Facebook friends have been culled.
There are a number of reasons for this:
- I have no internet access at home. I’ve obviously recently moved out of home and considering that I’m rarely at home as I’m either at work or out and about, I don’t see the point of paying $100AUD a month for a USB wireless modem for my laptop, as it wouldn’t be worthwhile to get a landline.
- I need to limit my internet usage at work. I am currently snowed under at work with a million tasks and responsibilities to prioritise. This situation isn’t going to change for the next six months. Having superfluous social networking accounts is only a distraction above and beyond what’s reasonable. Checking personal email throughout the day is reasonable. Spending half the day on Twitter and a forum isn’t.
- My mobile phone bill was going through the roof. It became a habit for me to catch up on people’s Tweets and forum updates on my phone when I was commuting to and from work. That’s two hours worth of mobile browsing each day – my bank account can’t keep up with the charges I sustained. The less accounts I have, the less I browse, the less my bill.
- I have other time-consuming offline commitments. Long story short, I am likely to be purchasing a property in the next couple of months. As such my weekends are taken up with inspecting properties for sale, and my weekdays are taken up with talking finances over the phone.
I am of course, still contactable via email, but because of demands on my time, replies may be late coming. I may in time sign up again for social networking sites, but it’s not something I can envision for the next six months. I am still keeping up with blog entries (however little I comment) and will continue to blog, however sporadically. I just need to learn to prioritise my commitments (e.g. concentrate on work) and to cut down on unnecessary expenditure (e.g. outrageous mobile browsing bills) in order to achieve my goals.