Twitter – Blue Pen Strokes

Social Media and the Problem of Plenty

Social media is exhausting, specially if you are intending to garner an audience or self-promote. There are myriad channels of communication and showcasing; all are craving your attention and content. If you are a writer, artist, or pursuing any creative channel, you are immediately in the snare of the social media octopus. There is Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, and I am ignorant of so many other channels.

All demand that you place your content in the most presentable way, on each one of them. There is information and design overload – the same content flooding the data stream with tags and hashtags. More than the creative pursuit, it is the pressure of pushing your content into these channels to grab the maximum eyeballs. Social media feeds on your deep FOMO – fear of missing out – in showcasing your content and following the trends.

A Blog Usurped – and Reclaimed

A decade back I started blogging and every two years I would pay to renew the hosting domain of my blog. Before 2013, it did not require much thought; the renewal was urgent. At the start of the year of 2013, I had my doubts, as I was not using my blog space, at all. The husband encouraged the renewal and I got it done. The next year, the web domain was relinquished.

Why? Was I thinking less, reading less, writing less? No, I was quite prolific with my thoughts and opinions, and reading quite a few new authors. I was also writing more frequently, if not too many words. Then, where were the words? Why were they not on my blog? Because some one stole my words and made them its own.

Why Blog Again?

More than a decade back I started a blog and also a novella. Both got lost in the haze and the maze of Life, as it happened. Social media also was a culprit as it usurped my blog.

I still write but it is almost all on Facebook. I tried my hand at Instagram but it was not my cup of tea. Twitter poetry was my refuge for some time but the basic problem with any form of social media creativity is that it becomes stale. Content is driven out of the queue and out of the mind, with the next work of art, the next influx of thoughts. Words are precious, as precious as the thoughts and memories that make them up.

Over the years my writings are many but all over the place. The question is – do we want the stats, the instant gratification, or do we want to write – for the self, for posterity. The answer as the say, is loud and clear, blowing in the wind.

This year, when my 10-year old son asked me about blogging, I encouraged him to start his own. It was a starting point, almost like a message from the Universe. While helping him set up and write, I recalled my own days of dedicated blogging. The followers were few, but the thoughts were neatly chronicled.

So, I have decided to blog again, in a new blog space and will collate most of my previous works, specially poems and stories in the brand new – https://bluepenstrokes.com. There will be newer writing, too, bold, beautiful, and a hopefully better tribute to the creatively absurd mind.

And the novella – I am hoping to revive it. Watch this blog to see how the draft evolves and read excerpts.

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