What has been on my mind the most over the past 18 month or so is trying to find a way forward in a life that makes absolutely no sense to me. This has been at the same time I’ve been trying to figure out what it will mean to become elderly by myself (assuming I have the good fortune to become elderly, of course). I’ve taken various steps that I think make sense for me (like walking every day), but, so far, I haven’t been as attentive to the rest of my current life, and that absolutely includes this blog (and my podcast…).
The recent events in the USA gave me a realisation—well, several, actually. First—and this isn’t new to me or anyone else—social media is arguably among the very the worst inventions humans have ever created. It seems that most—maybe all?—of the people in Western countries who commit political violence have become radicalised online, often, though not exclusively, through social media. My new thought was that maybe it’s not just the plethora of things people can engage with, but also the rapidity of much of that engagement, and this brings me back to this blog.
First and second generation blogs like this one are kind of quaint and old-fashioned. There have been attempts to commoditise blogs though various services, with varying results, but maybe—maybe—part of the solution to the harm wrought by social media is to slow things down a bit, and these “old fashioned” blogs give anyone the opportunity to create content that others can consume at their leisure. By extension, this same thing could also apply to audio-only podcasts, because they, too, are a bit more relaxed than video podcasts.
Or, maybe that wouldn’t help at all, and the old-fashioned content created by dinosaurs like me are destined to remain quaint and barely relevant. And, maybe society will continue to be dragged down by social media. Obviously, I have no way of knowing what will happen, but for the first time in a long time, I do feel like there’s a point to the creating content as I’ve been doing for the past 19 years. This is a thought process that’s still evolving, and, since I am a blogger, I’ll probably talk about it here on this blog.
This blog has always been about whatever catches my attention at any given point, but for the past six years that’s mostly been about me and reimagining my life. Of course. That isn’t as limited as it may sound, and actually has had all sorts of different things to talk about—when I get around to it.
What all this means is that the main issue still holding me back in pretty much everything, including blogging (and podcasting…) is a lack of determined commitment to getting around to talking about things I want to talk about. And yet, this blog is still here, and so am I. There are places to go, things to say and do—even after 19 years.
As I’ve said many times before, I began this blog in the first place because Nigel talked me into it—and then he encouraged me to podcast, too. And that’s the other big reason I continue: It’s among the very last things I did when Nigel was alive that I’m still doing, and the fact he encouraged me to do it is probably the rest of the reason I’m still doing this. I’ve often quoted the last line in my very first blog post because it continues to ring:
“So pour yourself a cuppa, relax, and let’s see where this leads.”As I said last year, “I couldn’t have put that better myself—oh yeah, I did put it that way. And the sentiment is still every bit as valid.”
Previous posts on my blogoversaries:
Anniversay Time (2007)
Blogoversary 2 (2008)
Anniversaries Three and Fourteen (2009)
Fourth blogoversary (2010)
Fifth blogoversary (2011)
Sixth blogoversary (2012)
Seventh Blogoversary (2013)
Ten years of the AmeriNZ Blog (2016)
The AmeriNZ Blog is eleven (2017)
The AmeriNZ Blog is twelve (2018)
The AmeriNZ Blog is thirteen (2019)
The AmeriNZ Blog is fourteen (2020)
The AmeriNZ Blog is fifteen (2021)
The AmeriNZ Blog is sixteen (2022)
Anniversaries 17 and 28 (2023)
The AmeriNZ Blog is 18 (2024)
2 comments:
You ARE quaint and old-fashioned. And I'm even older. Hey, AmeriNZ, "that's "retha Franklin."
These days, I'm keenly aware of the march of the years…
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