It is not often that I can have an instant epiphany while reading a blog post. It is even less likely for me to have one when reading a Freshly Pressed post.
I had one this morning though.
I won’t mention the post by name or even by subject. You may be able to guess by the general tone of my post. If you can, I can only apologise to the person who wrote it, this isn’t personal. It’s not even a criticism.
It’s just an epiphany.
We all write blogs for similar reasons and they run the gamut from practicing to write to reviews on film.
A lot of people though, use their blog as a sort of public diary. Their posts deal with introspective ideas, realizations, or perspectives. There are an awful lot of introspective blogs out there.
My blog, for instance, does quite a bit of introspective wool gathering and then goes on to air it, as they say, in public.
I try very hard though to keep it from being all about me and my introspective study of personal belly-button lint. I hope I’m able to walk the fine line between Zen-like self discovery and the public “whinging” and whining about my poor pitiful life.
When I write a blog that isn’t dealing with my own lifelong fascination of cinema and the acting profession I try to write about things that have happened to me or those around me. Not in a news sense, but in a sense of “I learned something today, I’ll just pass it on in case someone is interested.” I also like to put in print things I’ve done or seen or tried for the same reason.
I even like to put up introspective pieces if I feel that someone might identify with the issue and if not find an answer at least be compelled to look for one. I much prefer to post a “reflective” piece though. If you look at the tags for this post you’ll see reflective is one of them.
I was a young adult in the days of the “I’m okay, you’re okay” generation. A couple of decades when a few enterprising authors made a fortune on self help, self actualization, self promotion and even self love books, courses, and public seminars.
Do I sound cynical? If you answer yes, then you my dear friend and neighbor have been paying attention. I am indeed cynical. I’ve had 54 years of learning, that despite the teachings of a few self help books, people primarily look out for number one first and foremost.
Society has moved on from the “I’m okay, you’re okay” days and has moved into the “me” generation. The me generation started in the 90’s (I might be wrong here, but I became aware of it in the 90’s) and this has been morphed into the “I’m special” generation.
Father George Carlin spoke eloquently about the Special generation.
*contains adult language*
Now Father George refers to the “self esteem movement” aka the “I’m okay, you’re okay” days. It’s so nice to be vindicated. I just thought I’d point that out.
I guess the point I’m struggling to make is this, I don’t care about how well you can navigate the social network system. If you have discovered what a lot of folks already know about Facebook, Twitter, MySpace (I know they’ve changed their logo, but I can’t replicate it nor do I care to try), Bebo, et al; great!
I’m pleased for you. I might even go on to say I’m proud of you. There are not many who have gone this long and not realised that the new improved social network system is just another way for those in control to keep an eye on the populace.
Actually, the above paragraph is a slight exaggeration. I like the social network system or the SNS as I like to call it. It’s helping to make the world a smaller place. It’s also proving beyond a shadow of a doubt that trolls do exist.
I’m guessing that the amount of introspection blogs on offer has an awful lot to do with the creation of the “special’ movement. I never experienced that movement. When I grew up the pressure was on to be better at something and, if at all possible, to be the best.
I was taught that if you tried your best, that sometimes you would be better at something and you might even be the best…for a while. It’s called competition people, it’s healthy and very non-introspective.
We need to have goals and sometimes the goal is to be a better nailer than George or Mildred and not over internalize it or even to write about it. I may be overthinking this whole epiphany thing and that’s okay. At least I’m not over introspecting it.
Hopefully.
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It’s a new and wonderful world full of texts, email, IM and other non verbal ways of communication. Is it any wonder that the world is filling up with people who are socially inept. One day there may be a job for tutors to just teach young people the art of “face-to-face” conversation. 🙂
I remember watching this TED talk about social media and the woman, who was a mother telling that her daughter together with two friends spent time together showing a picture of all of them busy on their phones. She also said that during her research she met a teenager who didn’t know how to have a normal conversation and he told her that he would want to learn that eventually….when he would be older. I will try to learn my kids the proper way even though peer pressure does have its effects….
It also tends to encourage folks to not nurture their social interactive skills. Put them face to face with another person and they’re at a loss. 🙂
That was a nice read. I kind of agree with you about social networks, it seems those have become so important to a lot of people that they will put up so much personal stuff for everyone to read, without really sharing that stuff anymore when they are with others. Don’t use them much myself.
I am just as guilty of straying from the reflective mode of writing into introspection land. But I do try not to get too carried away. I think I was in an odd mood this morning and I hope that the guy or gal who did write the Freshly Pressed post doesn’t get too offended. Cheers mate! 🙂
I second both sentiments, the too young discoverers of America and the “quick” cook book! Thanks for stopping by and commenting, it always brightens my day. Cheers mate!! 🙂
That Carlin bit is very nice and spot on. The “everyone’s a winner” movement is stupid, and removes the meaning of the term winner. I think far more important than giving everyone a false sense of accomplishment by calling them winners no matter what they do is the idea of making them hate losing so much that whenever it happens they push themselves that much harder to get better.
I was a little worried when you started this article because I’ve done quite a few introspective articles and just recently posted one. But then you said it was Freshly Pressed and I knew it wasn’t me. *Sigh* Poor me! (j/k) For me it has always been a thought-expression practice rather than a “look at me, I need attention” type of thing, and hopefully I’ve avoided too much whininess. Nice thing is, it has worked very nicely and gotten me back into the swing of things writing-wise.
There are a lot of blogs that do what we used to call in Hebrew “discovering America.” In Hebrew, it means to learn what everyone already knows and announce it like you’re discovered a new land. I know each generation rediscovers the world, but I don’t have a lot of patience with 20 year olds learning what I learned 30 years ago who actually believe they have discovered America. Perhaps they should just write for each other.
Do I get maudlin? Sure. It’s my blog. If I get maudlin (or worse, philosophical and cerebral — stultifying everyone but me and 2 close friends who think it’s hilarious), I’ll notice no one reads it. On the other hand, diaries of youthful relationships with boy and girlfriends, the courtship rituals of the young and stoned make me want to put my hand through the monitor and shake them. They have an audience and it isn’t me.
Loved your lasgna recipe. More work than I generally put into cooking these days, but it sounded yummy. I like veggies. After a while, you won’t miss meat so much; you’ll find a little goes a long way. Cuts your food bills, too. They need a heart healthy cookbook for people who don’t want to spend quite so much time in the kitchen!