I’ve been a bit neglectful of my blog for a few months now. I update it once in a while, but my latest updates tend to be about things that have happened way in the past, that are lacking in depth and that are sporadic in frequency. This is disappointing because I view my blog as my primary place to write, reflect, share and communicate.
What happened?
Social media and the ease of instant gratification has happened. I rarely think to blog about anything anymore. It is so much easier to write a quick tweet, post on Facebook or share an impromptu photo online. Instant communication is great. But it leaves me feeling fragmented. Disjointed. Unhinged, even.
Then, when something major like my recent health issues come about, panicked posts to update friends and family become part of that spaghetti that you throw out on the wall, hoping that some of it will stick. Once I was feeling better, I wasn’t sure who saw which Facebook posts, who I talked to in person, who received my email updates and who was updated by someone else. That left me a bit bewildered about how to update everyone all at once. And that brought me back to my blog.
toddhdow.com has been my online home forever. And the content on that site is mine. I can download it. I can save it offline. I can import it elsewhere if I want. I can even easily delete some of my content if I want to. At the end of the day, my blog is mine and the content is owned by me.
Sure, I can delete my posts off of Facebook or Twitter or any other social network as well. But is it easy? Are you certain that you deleted all of your content? What if they change their terms of service? I don’t know about you, but I don’t really feel that I own my content on most social media sites. My blog categorizes my content in a way that makes it easy to manage. Social networks just aren’t built that way.
Don’t get me wrong. Social media is awesome. I love it. I love being able to keep in touch with people. I love keeping in touch with old friends, seeing how people are doing and sharing my experiences online. And there is no easier way to rally my friends to a common cause or keeping them in the loop on my various joys and concerns.
But to me, it just isn’t organized. It’s a big crazy jumble of stuff with no easy organized way of sorting and sifting. To an obsessive personality like me, it just isn’t organized enough.
So I come back to my blog. I’ve been sad that my blog has been neglected. I enjoy updating my blog. I value the outlet that it provides to me to share my thoughts, opinions and various ramblings. I find it therapeutic. And I like building my own little corner of the internet.
I decided to write a summary of my recent illness as a starting point, a marker on my return to blogging. I don’t know how long my return will last, but I suspect it’s going to be for a while. What makes me think that? I’ve got some ideas. They’re pretty cool ideas. They’re still rough ideas, but they are getting more clear each day.
Watch for my next post in the next few days. I’ll share some of those ideas with you then.
Todd
Todd H Dow 