Showing posts tagged: social media

The act of sharing matter online has an element of discretion attached to it. What you choose not to share is as important as, if not more than, what you choose to share. Mindless posting of everything you find, do, or like makes for an ambiguous narrative and doesn’t help your reader form an opinion about who you are. In order for your narrative to have any kind of coherence, there have to be gaps in it — empty spaces that emphasize the importance of the parts that are there.

Why “social” sharing isn’t publishing (via Medium)

notaquarterback:

Reblogs Don’t Equal Resonance

Rodriguez is a singer-songwriter from Detroit. Forty years ago, he released a couple of albums to no acclaim in the U.S. He went back to his poor life in Detroit, worked hard labor, raising three daughters and that was that.

In the 90s, unbeknownst to him or anyone else, it was discovered that Rodriguez music was the soundtrack to the apartheid struggle in South Africa, specifically for many white South Africans who’d grown up on his music.

Rodriguez knew nothing of this. There’s an entire documentary about this story called Searching For Sugar Man which won an Oscar and if there’s any documentary you ought to watch this year, if you’re a music fan (or just a human being) then it’s this one.

So much of the social world I work in, is about capturing attention and getting eyeballs. We focus so much of our energy on writing messages that reach people, putting ideas out that will resonate with our particular audience and try our hardest to capture interest from anyone and everyone who’ll listen to what we have to say. And it’s not just from prospective students. It’s alumni, future job seekers and anyone with a pulse.

This Rodriguez story resonated with me, because I think there’s something inherently wrong with a world focused so much on metrics and so little on substance. The thing about Rodriguez story is that he wasn’t a failure. He lived his days and while clearly life for he and his family wasn’t the easiest, it seems from the film his daughters are all well-adjusted and clearly Rodriguez is a humble man with the work ethic of a champ. He doesn’t feel like he’s owed anything.

But what’s more important than all of that is worth noting again. He didn’t fail. He didn’t fail to achieve critical success, either. His albums were circulating overseas. An Australian label was responsible for his albums being re-released in South Africa in the 90s which led his reintroduction to audiences who’d grown up on him, introducing him to their children two decades later. 

There are takeaways from all of this.

  • Sometimes your message will resonate in places you never anticipated.
  • Critics — positive or negative — aren’t everything.
  • Trust your path. Trust your craft. Trust your process. Trust yourself.

This story is more about authenticity and knowing you are, than it is about crafting yourself to fit a more mainstream audience. It’s always the message that’s wrong. It’s about the timing. Does it mean it’ll take you 40 years to resonate? Not exactly. It just means you shouldn’t always question the message, when it just be the audience isn’t ready to appreciate what you’re producing.

But after spreading out for so long, it seems like what I need to do is centralize and sacrifice: no longer is it about how many things I can do, but rather, how they all connect to each other — and most importantly, realize that what I’m doing and what I am is a process and not a product.

What’s a website? What’s a blog? And what’s the difference?

Ma’ayan discusses a dilemma I have often. You should read. 

It takes 30 days to break a habit. A habit is a settled or regular tendency or practice, especially one that is hard to give up. If you check Facebook every day that it is possible to do so, I would consider that a habit. If you check Facebook more than once a day, I would consider that a habit. If you turn to Facebook as a way to relieve boredom, I would say that is a habit. If you check Facebook often, regularly turning to it as a way to relieve boredom or to find “someone to talk to” and find yourself using it instead of doing something more fulfilling, which to you could be knitting a sweater vest but to me would be something more like finishing that goddamn David Foster Wallace novel despite how tiring the footnotes are getting, than I would say that you may be addicted.

Hayley Stockall, Facebook Fatigue (via colporteur)

(via btlrb)

I’m not trying to get all Walden Pond on you, and many of you will no doubt see this as nothing more than faddish crazy talk, but I’m going to work really hard to be both present and informed. I’ll keep taking advantage of networks to live a better and more productive life, just as soon as I get through the part of my transition that makes my head feel like wood, but they’re not going to keep taking advantage of me. And well, if a paleo media diet sounds stupid, do what works for you. We’re probably different. But I’m turning off, opting out, and disconnecting as much as I can to save my brain for more of the things I really want to use it for. I’ll let you know how it goes.

My Paleo Media Diet (Jim Stogdill)

courtenaybird: 2012 London Olympics in tweets  50 million tweets in just over two weeks Largest spike: 1.2M tweets in the 1st hour of the Opening Ceremony Most buzzed about Olympic sport: football (soccer!) with 2.8M tweets Most buzzed about athlete: diver Tom Daley from Great Britain with 630k tweets Most buzzed about country: the US with 104 medals and 5.4M tweets (via TweetReach)

courtenaybird:

2012 London Olympics in tweets 

  • 50 million tweets in just over two weeks
  • Largest spike: 1.2M tweets in the 1st hour of the Opening Ceremony
  • Most buzzed about Olympic sport: football (soccer!) with 2.8M tweets
  • Most buzzed about athlete: diver Tom Daley from Great Britain with 630k tweets
  • Most buzzed about country: the US with 104 medals and 5.4M tweets

(via TweetReach)

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