Monday, August 10, 2009

Thirteen (VERY RANDOM) Things I Learned While Off Facebook/Twitter for Two Weeks

1. PutOnBLAST!/Facebook/Twitter junkie that I am, even I recognize that fasting from social media, email, and even the telephone is good for the soul er’ once in a while. I survived!

2. TV and news fasts are even more nutritious.

3. My cue to exit: Right before the “can’t we all just get along” beer fest amongst Obama, Gates, and Crowley, the top news story of the day focused on the beer of choice for these men. I promise you that that set back race relations a few years. Harriet had to be turning in her grave.

4. Human interaction and hugs are underrated these days.

5. So is in-depth thinking.

6. “Morning Pages” work! (For my fellow Julia Cameron readers).

7. The power of positive attraction is very real, but I find that it is most amplified within this context: “a clean heart, clean hands, a clear head, and a clear path.” When I get rid of the crud that’s all around me (my own and that of others), I tend to make the healthiest choices. The blessings flow instantly.

8. Conversely, when I focus on fear, guilt, and lack, I make narrow-minded, crippling decisions.

9. “THANK YOU GOD for not answering some of my prayers. If you had listened to me and I ended up with ---, I’d be pitiful and miserable right now. What the hell was I thinking?”

10. Given my path, some may find this hard to believe, but for real…I ain’t mad at Creflo Dollar.

11. My heart still hurts thinking about Michael Jackson. I am writing an open love letter that I will share on or near his birthday.

12. From Kwame Ture: “Corporate media always lies. When they tell the truth, it’s a double lie!”

13. If you are an independent artist, activist, advocate, or otherwise public figure and you believe that ownership is fundamental to independence, then why don’t you have your own website that you control? Why don’t you have a way to stay in communication with your friends, followers, and subscribers beyond Facebook, Twitter, and/or MySpace? What if the next DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attack lasts more than a few hours or what if it causes irreparable damage to your communication network? What becomes of your online communities then? If you can’t do it right now, then make it your primary goal for the future: invest in a communication platform that YOU control…lest your online lifeline be cut from beneath you because some hacker has an axe to grind. My primary mean of online interaction is via the email communication system that I created. I invest a lot of time and money into my Put On BLAST! service. There are no short cuts here. It’s not without flaws, of course, but if Facebook, Twitter, and Google go down again (like they did last week), and if the next time is more widespread and radical, then I am well poised to connect with thousands of people regardless, and can do so my own terms and without interruption.

1 comment:

rhythm said...

that was all quite yummy for my soul. thanks, sis.