Thursday, March 03, 2011

Life...Curated


I have this theory:
People over age 40 are pretty careful about what they post on Facebook or in their blogs, understanding that they have worked a fair amount of their lives to create a "self" that they have some investment in.
People under age 40 are much less careful about how they "put themselves out there" on social media because they don't seem to have as much "self protection"  on the internet.

Now, wait a minute and don't go all crazy on me with comments that start with: But, I... (!)

I know this is a huge generalization. I do. I also know that I'm starting to find this whole social networking thing pretty exhausting because there seems so little I can actually write about! If you take out the complaining, the TMI subjects, religion, money and intimate relationships, you've just cut down what I think about and would therefore write about, considerably! Mostly knitting or business.

I made a joke last night on Facebook "You can't un-ring a bell."

That comment brought out a couple of folks who thought knew what it was I might want to say. In fact, there are so many things I want to say and so often. Most often, I simply don't. Not on Facebook, on Twitter, or even on one of my three blogs. I'm getting to wonder what the point is! I don't think I'm running for president anymore. Ha! Just what am I protecting...?

Back to the title of this post, referring to "curated" content. I read that as a description of how I get my news and current information on my iphone. I know it's someone else choosing of what I might like to read. I accept that the New York Times will give me some pretty interesting stuff to read, several times a day, even if I didn't handpick it myself through the many pages of a newspaper.

I'm starting to think of my social network life as a "curated" version of me. I just don't know if I like it anymore. This is going to be a long conversation with myself on this topic, as it has already been. I'm just sharing it with you now. See...sharing more! Hmmmm. We'll see. I'll keep you posted.
I would like to hear other folks' thoughts on this.

Meanwhile, when I first started this blog, I wrote a fair amount about some personal insights in my life at that time. Those particular insights could have been written just yesterday. Maybe I'll take up that line of thought again. In fact, I'm going to a new zendo in my neighborhood and renewing my Zen practice. It's come at a really good time but it is challenging. I'll keep you posted on that as well. It all comes around to the same thing I'm thinking about. Read the first sentence of this post. An investment in self. How "un Zen."

Back to knitting.