I'm beginning to realize that the writers' block I struggle with comes, not from a lack of ideas, but from being absolutely tired of my own output.
Modern life, or at least my modern life, seems to require a constant stream of communication. I post on facebook, share my photos on flickr, blog, pin, tweet, and text. Since I'm at a computer, I might as well log my work-outs, check my bank account, and keep my budget updated. All. Day. Long.
At work I sit at my desk calling people, emailing them, responding to their queries and answering their questions. Sometimes I travel to other states and do it all in person. And then there's meetings to go to, strategies to plan, coworkers that need to be kept up to date.
And somewhere in there, friends deserve to be talked to, listened to, and loved.
I'm an introverted person spending all her time talking and typing and clicking share and publish. It's maddening.
So a month (or two) goes by without a substantial blog post. I just don't seem to have it in me. Everything I might want to say has been bastardized and said in status updates, images, and 140 characters. There's only so much noise a girl can make.
About five years ago, I remember seeing quite a bit of fuss made of how much social networking (in all its pervasive and various forms) was changing the way we communicate. Being the harbingers of doom that writers, philosophers, and theorists so often are, the concern seemed to center around how abbreviated, constant, and meaningless communication was becoming, and how it was quite obviously just about to destroy human relationships and the english language all at once. I tend to ignore such dire warnings, remembering that technology is ever changing, and that there was probably someone who believed that readily available paper and quills were a bad thing for relationships.
But that doesn't mean it's not bad for me. I am, after all, someone who doesn't actually like people knowing too much about her, and hates noise enough to despise the existence of car radios, and can become annoyed when people cough "too" "loudly."
Perhaps it's time to withdraw my candidacy in the race to be up-to-date and savvy. I started a new blog recently, and I'm sure is taking it's toll, which is ironic, since the blog represents a project undertaken to cultivate simplicity and thoughtfulness into daily life. I wanted to cut down my physical possessions to see if I could quiet my heart, but I'm beginning to think that I probably just need to delete some URLs.
