I have gone back to this blog because I simply stopped writing that planned autobiography.
Social media sure seems a tempting way to pass the time. You can heckle The Olympic Games or defend The World Cup. You can boo the politicians, and despair of the war zones. You tip-toe through the possibility of posting something stupid that draws the trolls, or goes viral. You take inane quizzes (designed by who?) about which film star you look like, or what kind of animal you resemble).
As only a small sample of the people you know on Facebook (itself a tiny sample of the possible crowd) actually see anything you post, you end up working to a crowd of 80 or whatever. Or you can fall into self-promotion to attempt to expand your fan/friend base.
If you are Ricky Gervais or Amanda Palmer (on Twitter) you get to have conversational exchanges with millions of people - so do you speak the truth, or polish one-liners, or just throw out provocations?
As a pseudo-Buddhist I appreciate how ephemeral all phenomena can appear...
I can't do this for now. Nothing I say about Gaza will really speed up the resolution of the problem. I become a sub-editor of opinion - either trying to provide a wide-ranging and balanced set of links, or to narrow people's focus to my own take on things.
Crazy.
So, I prefer blogs as ways of storing some of my stuff (I can never find anything again in social media, they seem totally addicted to the moment). And I don't really care if anyone else reads it. I like the idea that I can just use it as a diary, but that friends can peer over my shoulder if they care.
"If you write as good as you talk, nobody reads you." Lou Reed, dealing with a heckler on Take No Prisoners - a live concert album that cracks me up - Lou doing stand-up.
I might have to go stick that on, now, although some of his fans don't like it.
See, in a blog I can wander around, instead of sticking to some kind of thread, or train of thought.
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