adventures of mascarah.

Dear John,

Funny how many letters have probably started that way…. While I don’t think I’m yet over Twitter and I think it serves its bite sized purpose in my life, I do think you summed up perfectly below why Tumblr as a platform is so valuable to someone who enjoys to learn and think and be challenged by other ideas and perspectives.

The healthy “debate” and discussion that Tumblr by its social nature facilitates is one of the reasons why I’ve stayed with it for so many years. The other reason is that it acts as such a great aggregate of interesting “things.” News, stories, photos, quotations, songs…

I’m a firm believer in the concept that “Word of Mouth” - be it from an artist whose music you love or from a friend whose taste you know you trust or  from a total stranger whose photographic eye inspires you - is the future of this over-advertised world we live in.

The truth is that I’m more influenced tothink or purchase or listen or see or experience from the random musings and finds of my online circle of ‘friends’ than I am from any strategic product placement or glossy Vogue ad (although those aesthetically and artistically can be inspiring themselves..)

I think that your issues with Twitter and the micro nature of the conversation and your appreciation for the more dialogue driven environment of Tumblr are especially relevant for a witty (or perhaps strong or rash or extreme) personality that naturally fuels debate or someone whose attention people just want to attract. The latter definitely applies to you.

Social Media makes formerly inaccessible people appear accessible, when in fact, they aren’t….or at least at the level that people would hope they would be. People get thrills out of celeb reblogs and retweets and almost, in some cases, feel like they are owed some type of engagement.

That’s the downside of this overly active digital social world we live in…often times people can’t always see the line in the sand. They grow to feel some type of entitlement…and begin to think public attacks are fair game, that questions should go answered, and that anyone who doesn’t engage with them via the rules of engagement that they’ve established is now some kind of an asshole who deserves judgment rendered.

When really…we all (famous, infamous, joe schmoe) have a right to express ourselves in the way in which we desire (assuming we aren’t using any of these mediums or our words to tear down or insult another person) and we all have the right to choose - how, when, and on what terms we will engage.

I hope you’ll stick around here. I like reading your words, listening to your songs, and am inspired by your willingness to engage…be it at 140 plus or minus.

Sarah

Ps - Come back to the Comedy Cellar.

jhnmyr:

Last week in Los Angeles I participated in a live Q&A as part of an ASCAP expo on songwriting. When the topic of Twitter came up, I explained my waning interest in it being part of my daily life. By no means do I think it’s over as a medium altogether, but I do think that the days of “Twitter: The Breakthrough” have passed, as has been and will continue to be the case for every online social network. It’s reached it’s cruising altitude, so to speak. Patterns and templates are emerging. The Twitter-bred syntax isn’t really doing it for me anymore.

And call me crazy, but I don’t think it’s the healthiest thing in the world to read scads of mentions/@replies and effectively open the floodgate of other people’s approval/disapproval. Finding out in 140 characters what a stranger has to say about you is like a mathematical equation without an established value of ‘x’. Who are you, stranger? What do you stand for? What do you like, and if it’s not me, then what does move you? What DO you look up to? Once I find that out, I’ll know how disappointed I should be.

This is where Tumblr comes in. It’s the future of social networking if your image of the future features intelligent discourse. I love reading other Tumblr users replies, because they’re thoughtful by virtue of the fact that if they’re not, they’ll bring the intellectual property value of their own blog down, and that’s a commodity on Tumblr. 

This post is an experiment in itself. If you want to communicate me, open a Tumblr account, follow me, repost my blog and then add to it. I’ll follow you back. Agree or disagree, lionize or demonize, but for God’s sake, be original. You’ll have all the room in the world to do it now.

JM