There have been a lot of articles like the one i linked in my fredart twitter by Cory Doctorow about the battle to write and be productive in an online environment.  What is amusing about this is that my awareness of it and subsequent linking in my twitter is a glowing example of my own problems with filtering out the rumbling cacophony of the rest of the world as i try to focus on my little contributions to it.

I started using twitter quite a while ago, and while i would not lay claim to being an ‘early adopter’, the various ‘gee, how cool am i?’ sites that tell you how cool your twitter vibe is (groan) seems to indicate that my use of it has been reasonably ’successful’ (whatever being ’successful’ with twitter really means… Twittercount, Twitterholic, etc.).

The reason i started using Twitter was because I liked the idea of using it as a kind of micro blog that i could update quickly and easily without the need to gather my thoughts and take the time to write a coherent rant or blog post.  The evolution of twitter, both for myself and for the rest of the internet, has turned it into something that is a bit more than just a micro blog, its like a micro blog that turns into a broadcasting instant chat with anyone who responds to your blathering.  Is that more fun than a microblog?  Yes, it is more fun.  But is this what i should be spending my time on?

When it comes down to it, Twitter is just another way to create content.  The problem is that it can really impinge the other content creation you should be doing.  It’s not just the constant distraction it can be, but the fact that it’s too easy a way to throw out some of those random ideas and thoughts that you really should be saving to pull together in a far more thoughtful and meaningful way.

I think this is why I have had even less of an inkling to write rants than i used to.  You only have so much time in a day, and so much attention.  I really need to be more selective in how that attention is spent.   Twitter, as good as it is, is not really the kind of content i want to be producing.  It’s like throwing out one liners rather than writing a full story.

I’m not abandoning my fredart twitter, not at all.  I’ve just decided it’s like the TV – I can’t draw or write when the TV is on, so i keep it off.  I just have to approach twitter and the rest of the net the same way when i am working.  I have two websites and a relatively popular comic that i can create content for.  I can draw (which is, i am told, an ability some people envy), so when i feel the need to relate some of my randomness, i’ll do it where it can become part of the internet’s content stream on my own terms.

Besides, i’m getting tired of that 140 character limit.

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Posted by fredrin on February 10th, 2009 :: Filed under Daily Blogging
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