Back in the “good ol’ days” of late 2000, I started writing regularly on the Internet. Back in those days, I was mostly writing software reviews for a relatively new gadget – the Pocket PC. There were a few web sites around that focused on the technology, but not a ton. In January 2002, I launched BostonPocketPC.com. The idea was to use the Internet to communicate about Pocket PC, then Smartphone, then Windows Mobile and now Windows Phone technologies. News and reviews was the name of the game.
BostonPocketPC.com has always been an enjoyable experience for me. It has given me the chance to meet new people and write about technology I love. A lot has changed in the last 8 years, but it is what has occurred in the last year that has really changed by interaction with the Internet – the emergence of social media.
I’ve always enjoyed writing. I’ve also enjoyed interacting. While traditional “blogging” on the Internet is a great way to speak to an audience, it’s never been a great way to “communicate”. Even longer than my Internet writing career, my professional career has been focused on dialog rather than monologue. Blogging does have it’s ability to invoke conversation, but it is not it’s default nature. The advent of technologies like RSS have moved traditional Internet writing even more towards a more uni-directional nature. That’s never really been my “cup of tea”. The emergence and acceptance of social media technologies has proven to be the media I truly crave.
Whether it be Twitter or Facebook, Yelp or FourSquare, social media is all about interaction. Tweets are replied to, either in replies, retweets or direct messages. Facebook posts result in comments or “likes'”. All very much and very easily in real time. Sure, we’ve had email, forums and newsgroups. None, though, have encouraged the widespread and rapid response to thoughts, opinions and statements than these social media tools do. For me, the result has been quite obvious – I’ve found myself spending far more time in the social media world. This has come at the expense of the traditional Internet mediums. I’ve been thinking a lot about this recently, and I’ve come to some conclusions.
I’ve come to realize that there still is a place for both the traditional and “new” ways of communicating on the ‘Net. I have come to realize I still find enjoyment in blogging. I’ve also come to realize that it is most enjoyable when I want to communicate a message that can’t be conveyed in 140 characters or a “quickie” paragraph. While social media has some strengths (as I described above), it does has it drawbacks. I also realized that by being a little too immersed in social media, I sort of rationalized myself out of writing more. You have to admit it; Twitter and Facebook do make us a bit lazy when it comes to writing. That is going to change.
My plan moving forward is to try to start doing a healthier mixture of both social media and blogging. I really don’t need to change my social media habits to accomplish this; social media only takes a matter of seconds at a time to communicate. I will start to take the time to identify those things worthy of more complex communication (read - “more words”) and bring them to my blogs/sites. While I might not get the interaction I would like, I still hope that they can either inform or invoke thought. In the end, that is why I have always really enjoyed my writing on the Internet, and what I had somewhat lost sight of – until now.