Tag Archives: social media and social graces

There’s this site called Get Off My Internets. If you’re a blog reader, maybe you’ve heard of it. If you’re a blogger, you probably are aware of it because you’re afraid of ending up there, or already have, or maybe know someone who has, and so you checked it out, completely baffled as you scrolled through the site all the while wondering if it was a joke. If it was some sort of The Onion-esque take on the blogosphere. But it’s not. It’s real people trashing other real people. For kicks and clicks.

GOMI has every right to its little piece of earth in the ether. I’d never argue otherwise. The internet welcomes all. And yet.

GOMI was just named one of the 100 Best Sites for Women by this thing called Forbes. Maybe you’ve heard of them. And my If Emily Posted-writing brain is having a hard time wrapping my head around this. GOMI is like the social media news cycle version of those Enquirer covers with a collage of celeb cellulite. Here, read this and feel better about yourself by tearing down someone else.

I want you to read a really fabulous post by Morgan about the inclusion of GOMI on the Forbes list.

GOMI isn’t pretty. Life isn’t always pretty. But when we glorify those who spend their days ripping bloggers to shreds as one of the best places to be online, I think we need to stop and think about what we’re doing here. What has the blogosphere become?

And I would really, really like to know how the voting process for this Forbes list takes places because the description sounds a lot more like a Heathers Lunchtime Poll than the People’s Choice Awards.

If this epitomizes the “best of the best” for women online, then I don’t want to know what is defined as the worst.

Some value what Forbes has to say. Some value what GOMI has to say. I value what Morgan has to say.

I have a business called TYPE A, and as much as I like to think that it’s mostly a play on words, some days it’s more than apparent it’s not. I never thought of listmaking and daily habits as being contrary to the creative process - I do my best work when my ducks are in a row rather than scattered about. Right now, I am in the midst of the busiest time of year, when photography and writing and calligraphy design work take on the holidays.

I continue to be fascinated by all I am reading about the screens that fill our days - from our desks to the palms of our hands. Just knowing the amount of time it can take to refocus after stopping a task to check an email makes me see how much of my day is spent hitting reset. Or rather, how often I am thinking about too many things making it impossible to be in the moment.

The mystery as to where my focus has gone is solved. I assume that it will always be where I last left it. Instead, it’s a bit more like needing a trail of breadcrumbs to lead me back to where I was before the email, the text, the tweet, grabbed my attention. And it doesn’t always blend well with work that is constantly changing. Freelancing is a never ending calendar of deadlines and new beginnings.

I’m writing a lot more on paper these days. And back to my old habit of two or three books on my nightstand. My focus is still awful on some days. Others, I check off each project in my Day Designer with the satisfaction of knowing I did not let all the little distractions win. They add up.

I love the internet for about ten thousands reasons. I also love when I can step away and not feel that being unplugged is a loss. It’s bizarre to see how hard this is sometimes. Not because I lack all willpower, but because so much of what I do is made easier by the web. Figuring out how to navigate that is still tricky. The last three years things sped up so much.

So, I’m making a list of things I learned online in the last year. Things I’ve changed. Things I’m changing. Things I won’t change. Retrospect is kind of a pain in the ass but it can also teach me a thing or two. Strangely, technology is helping me to make better use of technology.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of this twenty-first century, I’m…

Sorry, but three emails just arrived, and I had to check them. And by had to, I mean I could not wait until I finished these few lines in order to see what it was all about. Yes, I am waiting on things but they could have waited a moment longer.

On the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year of this twenty-first century, I’m officially a work in progress.

Stay tuned.