A Feed of My Friends
I don’t know how long-winded this is going to be, but I’m just going to write and let the words flow for as long as they do. This is honestly how I write. I throw shit at the wall until it sticks.
Listen, I know I’m a bit of an evangelist about writing, and I know it’s not for everybody. At least, not everyone thinks it’s for them. I didn’t. When I first started running my own site again, I was still caught in the Twitter mindset of 150 characters or less. My thoughts didn’t expand beyond short bursts. When I was in college, I struggled with my composition classes until I was given something that was in my wheelhouse. Otherwise, those projects waited until the very last minute when I would haphazardly throw them together, trying my best to grind out three pages of material to at least make it look like I put some deep thought and effort into what I was writing about.
I think people get intimidated by writing. In a format like this, there’s this perceived pressure to write a shit ton about whatever and to post as frequently as possible. I’m here to tell you to forget all of that. I feel like I’ve said this before, but many of us are already blogging. We’re just doing it on social media websites that silo our content into a platform with a shitty user interface. And that’s just part of my surface-level disdain of social media; it’s ugly. I also think it makes us ugly. It incentivizes us to show out and post something that’s going to be worthy of likes. Then we get disappointed when nobody likes our shit, or if only two or three people do so. If you had that many people complimenting you in person, you’d be flattered. Why do we expect the whole world to do so online? To me, that’s not worth creating an artificial version of ourselves that’s only out for attention.
I follow a decent number of personal blogs through my RSS service Feedbin. Below is what this looks like in the app Unread on my desktop (there are also mobile versions of this app) 1:
There are long posts. There are short-form ones. Some are sharing their creative writing. Others pick a topic. And yet others are just showing a photo with a caption. And yet, I feel like the vibe is less attention-grabby than anything on social media. It also shows there’s absolutely no pressure on the format in which you post. I’m personally a fan of Ghost as my blogging platform, as it tends to force you into a corner of posting stuff with a title. I’m good with this. But, if that’s not your speed, maybe take a look at something like Pika.
But, back to my point, what I would love to have is a folder called something like “People I Know”, full of, well, people I know. I would look forward to that. I would get excited every time I saw a post from a personal friend. The very premise of social media was to connect us by allowing us to share our lives, or at least pieces of it, with one another. To allow us to get our story out without having to make 10 phone calls. I would love a feed of genuine pieces from those I personally care about.
And back to my other point, about writing itself. The thing about writing, whether it be in a format like this, or something you keep personal to yourself, is I feel like you have to be honest with it. It’s just you, the blank page, and what you feel or think. There’s no bullshitting with that. There’s no influences from the outside right in your face because the page is literally blank. Whether you choose to publish is entirely up to you. But, if you do, do it for you, not how much attention it’s going to garner you. I find it personally cathartic getting my stuff out in the open. I post it, I may share it with a couple of friends directly, but anyone who reads it is going to know how I feel about something. They’re going to pick up on my passions, my interests, and my personality. In that, there’s the potential for connection, whether I get a response from it or not. I’ve said my piece and you felt it. I feel like that’s better than shouting at each other online about politics 2 or posting selfies for the hope of a burst of dopamine. I mean, sure it feels good for a moment, but only a moment. What’s more lasting, to me at least, is knowing our loved ones for who they really are. I want to read my friends’ stories.
