Tuesday, December 7, 2010

A little perspective...

A quick update, an overdue post on what I'm up to lately.

     As many of you know I'm active in the blogosphere and in social media, mostly Twitter and Facebook. I read and follow dozens of writerly blogs and publishing industry websites and I try to keep up on the latest news and information as it pertains.
An interesting perspective has formed in my little brain that I wanted to ramble about today.
  
     Firstly, I've made some great friends in the past and also more recently thanks to social media, and, by contributing to and interacting with numerous writer and writer's blog sites in support of my fellow writers and their efforts. Something I am sincere about.
 Many editors, agents and publishers I follow offer their opinions and advice freely in well done blogs and on awesome websites. I've noticed tightly knit communities in these fields as well. I also follow closely several of the cutting edge tech and SEO type sites, like Hubspot, Mashable, Technorati, Digital Book World and a few others. Being both a techie and a writer, for me, these two worlds easily blend together in some ways, and yet, in others they don't.
I wanted to talk today about the ways they don't.

     Let me ask you something: How do you act, think, feel and treat people you're close to, like friends, family, relatives, or even colleagues? Is the bond or connection for you personal and emotional or does it lean more to a business or marketing mentality, or is it a bit of both? And, is it  the same or different from the way you speak to and think about and interact with clients, customers and business associates or others you don't know so well?
What? You might be asking right now.
Here's what I see every single day as I zoom around the internet touching base with friends and fellow writer friends, writer sites, tech sites and just about everywhere else. I see the lines blurring between friendships and marketing between people, such as writers, and an odd mentality of association for gain or profit, only, taking the place of basic human trait of people just wanting to be together. Not that this is, (everyone together holding hands skipping through green pastures throwing rose petals in the air and singing,) all I expect or had hoped for the web to be for me or anyone else. Maybe it's because for most people the web and all it's glory and power is so new to them and since 99% of what's on the internet is profit driven, the influence is invasively overt and at the same time subliminal and fuses with people's perception, development and use of the internet. Even to the point of changing how we find, see, interact and treat each other.
It's becoming a capture (site) and convert (to sale) world.

     Back in the early to mid nineties when I got my first computer, the world I knew to be out there was suddenly at my finger tips in living color with real people I could communicate with no matter where in the world they were. I kept in daily touch with a group of scientists stationed in Antarctica who were studying the dispersement and effects of sediment particles(pollution) in the atmosphere. I recall a somber Dr. telling me they had found diesel and other emission carbon particles up to 3 feet down in the older ice pack. This was historical news, very bad news. In those days it was a daily, momentary thrill to be part of something we all knew would soon change the world. I had a tech genius friend and pioneer who would regale us with tall tales of the future of computing and what the computers of tomorrow would and could do.
Awesome stuff since I see his theories and predictions all coming true.
I still see light speed changes and new technology and it's application spreading it's mighty wings every day but I'm troubled by the dis-associative current silently(sometimes not so silently) flowing underneath it all. Maybe you don't, but I do.
One of the world's top marketers does and it has caused him to write about it recently.
I'm not planning to run off and live in a cave or unplug my computers and throw them in the trash.

Being and staying personal on every level, for me, is a priority, not a clever sales or networking technique. It's part of who I am and how I demonstrate my love and respect for people. Being a writer, I enjoy daily emails, Twitter and Facebook communications and comments from lots of different folks. n it's still fun to make new friends too.
Writers are people whose job can be solitary in it's fundamental execution so I see a higher level of understanding and exuberance among them interacting with each other professionally and socially and I really get a kick out that. I hope that never changes.

I just wanted to write a few words about  how I see things lately.
That's it for now, you know where to find me.
                                
                                                              LUVU

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