So, why am I launching a blog?
The internet and social media have enabled all of us to share the minutiae of our lived experience to the entire world at the push of a button.
On Twitter alone, more than 8,000 messages go out every second. In the same blink of an eye about 900 Instagram photos and captions are posted, and 24,000 people update their Facebook status. Add to those numbers the thousands upon thousands of us who feel compelled to interact with those posts by “liking”, sharing or commenting on them and it’s hard to understand who, with so many people talking, could possibly be listening.
It’s now de rigueur to see diplomacy (and I use that term lightly) carried out through Twitter. And while his tweets arguably garner the most attention, this phenomenon is by no means limited to @realDonaldTrump. Even our own political darling @cafreeland has been known to get herself, and Canada, into hot water in 280 characters or less.
Sure, politicians, journalists, celebrities, and to some extent, academics have always had a ready soapbox of one kind or another. What’s new now is that anybody with access to the internet – at least four billion of us, and growing rapidly (nearly 25 million people jumped into the online world for the first time in 2017) can shout their unsolicited opinions to the world.
So really, everybody does seem to be talking and sharing. And yes, possibly some people are listening – but it’s more challenging than cleaning out my mom’s 46-year-old junk drawer to clear through the clutter.
Which might make one ask, “Why, Kelley, do you feel it necessary to add your voice to the cacophony of observations, musings, opinions and cat videos that bombard us all day long by starting a blog?”
The answer is: one part midlife crisis and one part self-actualization.
At a little over 50, I find myself reflecting on my life and wondering what the hell it is I’ve been doing all this time and, possibly more profoundly, what the hell will anyone say at my funeral?
When I voyeuristically comb through the weekend obituaries (in a real newspaper) I simultaneously marvel at the accomplishments of others while fretting about what legacy I will leave. As I watch my children embrace their talents and pursue their dreams I have this niggling feeling in my gut that I’m not quite done with mine.
While I have been a writer of one sort or another – in advertising, corporate communications, PR and more – for most of my career, I haven’t carved out much space to write just for myself. This blog is that place.
I hope you’ll come along for the ride as I muse on random events and news that catch my attention, but if you’re too busy actualizing your own self I’m good with that too.
