I'm trying to stay away from facebook at the moment because it's entirely overwhelming.
1
Partly it's the flood of COVID information, although I'm reasonably good at regulating that. After fifty years of living with myself, many of them spent on the internet, I have learnt to moderate the type and amount of information I take on. I like to be well-informed, to keep reading until I understand, but I do try to stop before I overwhelm myself.
2
Partly it's the ocean of 'how to cope' messages, and the reminders about how privileged we really are. If I see that meme about grandparents being asked to go off to war and me being asked to sit on the couch one more time I think I really will throw my computer out of the window. I know all these things, and I do think perspective is important, but I don't think the constant harking back to some golden age where people just got on with it is helpful.
But also, for some reason, my algorithm thinks I want to see a constant line of life coaches offering advice and inspiration on how to cope with life indoors.
3
Partly it's the tsunami of video. With everyone home, and everyone sharing every 'Andrew, you don't run the press conference' tik tok (hilarious, that is true, but we've seen so many) it's making my feed even more hyper-stimulating than usual.
And along with that, the explosion of content. My arts colleagues are racing to work out how to do our work now theatres are closed, books can't be launched, lessons can't be taught. But for me it's like Fringe time all over again ... if I let myself I will quickly be overwhelmed by everyone else doing everything else. At that point, my response is always to simply stop. I know I can't keep up so I just stop trying.
I'm at a pivotal point in developing my work. I feel like I've only just got it back on track after things went wonky for a few years there. I can't afford to let myself lose my momentum again.
Conclusion
So that's why I've come back to blogging. It's quieter and gentler than facebook. Over the years, I've come to rely on online writing to help my process things and help me get things kick-started so I don't want to simply turn the internet off while I concentrate on my offline projects.
I thought I'd be on my own, but it seems I'm not the only one feeling this way, as a small core of old blogging friends reveal themselves one by one to be back blogging.
I was going to use my website, where I've still got all my old blog posts, but it's got so complicated and over the years I've tried so often to set up different blogs that it didn't solve my deep-seated need for simplicity. So back to blogger it was. I've loved setting this blog up. Blogger has got slightly more complex than it first was, but not too much. Enough is simple and familiar that pretty soon I was back to doing nothing more than scrolling through fonts trying to decide which one I liked best.
Blogging, I love you and I'm glad we've finally found a way to get back together.
The End. Or is it?
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