Late To The Party…
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It is March 2009, and this is my very first blog post.
Seriously, folks.
Talk about being late to a party… So what gives? Back in 2004 I had decided I wanted to start a blog. I really didn’t know what I wanted exactly, or how I wanted to do it (not that I really have any clearer picture today) but I knew that I wanted to start a blog. If blogging is coming of age now, then five years ago it was an unpredictable adolescent. Because it was so new, the consequences of social media were just beginning to be realized and acknowledged. Now, as a person, I have generally maintained a private life. This isn’t to say that I’m not social or that I don’t have close friendships, only that it means I value my personal space, personal information, and privacy. My reasons for wanting to begin blogging were at odds with some of my core self beliefs, and so, unsurprisingly, I was unable to reconcile the differences. My reasons for wanting to blog were the wrong reasons: I wanted to be cool.
Even up until 2006, I thought that social media was just a fad that would eventually run it’s course, dying when The Next Big Thing® came along, yet leaving a trail of eternally persistent personal information behind. Yet, as social media continued to grow and expand, I couldn’t help but feel that I was being left behind. I work in the information technology field. I eat, breath, and live technology, especially the cool new stuff, but I wasn’t allowing myself to participate in social media because of what the price of admissions meant (opening myself up). If there is one thing anyone who is serious about technology knows, it’s that if you don’t keep up, you will be left behind and become irrelevant and obsolete. If I were to have a future, it meant that I needed to adjust my perceptions to fit an ever evolving reality.
I cannot express in words the magnitude this existential conflict caused. Suffice to say, I spent considerable time trying to decide whether I wanted to participate in social media (certain friends can attest to that). One important “rule” I learned about social media is the requirement to be authentic. If you are inauthentic, you don’t belong in social media – and you will be called on the carpet if you are. But being authentic doesn’t mean that one is required to share information without regard for the consequences. Thinking back to my early days of the Internet and #IRC and AOL chat rooms, I remembered people that went online to escape their lives or be the person or persona they wanted or wished they could be. It was then I realized that social media isn’t anything special. Using social media means being yourself, in whatever form that happens to be, as long as you are being who you are and not someone you wish you were. Authenticity in social media is really about applying commonly accepted societal norms to your digital life as simply an extension of your physical life.
Once I understood that, I also began to see the importance of personal branding. When Time magazine announced the 2006 Man of the Year, I think many mainstream readers missed the point; I know I did. The rise of Web 2.0 placed the emphasis on the user (any user), rather than a PR/marketing firm. Suddenly, users of the Internet had tools at their disposal (Blogger, WordPress, MovableType, MySpace, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) that allowed them to craft and master their personal brand on their own terms. Up until a few months ago, a Google search of my name returned zero results. I was literally unknown to Google (and by extension, the rest of the world). At first this was a source of pride, but then I came to realize this was an opportunity – I could craft and develop my personal brand any way I saw fit.
It is March 2009, and this is my very first blog post.
In all honesty, I do not know how this site will evolve. Planning and developing something for ones self, especially for a perfectionist like me, is always a challenge. At the very least it will provide me with a valuable learning and life experience that I hope will provide personal and professional benefit. It will be interesting to see where I am in March 2010. Mark your calendars…
