I’ve decided to make September my technology month. As a 48-year old woman who has tried, with just a smattering of success, to stay au courant with the web, I am vowing to try harder.
I have had a blog for more than three years now. When I first started it, I thought I was pretty hip. “I’m a blogger,” I used to tell people at cocktail parties.
But it only took about six minutes before everyone was a blogger and my efforts were no longer cutting edge.
I’ve dabbled in Facebook. I’ve read about Twitter. I’ve set up a Redroom.com account. I am about to launch a website for my book, Towers of Gold, which will be released in 10 weeks.
But with the demise of book sections around the country, along with the wholesale layoffs of my reporter friends (whom I had secretly hoped would want to write feature articles about my book) I now realize I need to amp up my on-line presence.
This will not be easy for a techno-phobe.
In the past few days I have been playing around more on Facebook. If you are out there, and I know you, however vaguely, I will try and become your friend. Be warned.
I had a plan to delve further into technology, which involved frequent blog postings, mood updates on Facebook and a stab at Twitter. And then, just two days after I started, I heard of ANOTHER social networking tool. (My heart sunk. How does one keep up? ) Salon has created something called Open Salon, which is a place where you post blogs and if the editors like them enough they will put something on the home page of Salon WHERE SIX MILLION PEOPLE CAN READ IT.
The pressure is on.
3 comments:
I am a food blogger and face the same techno issues -- it use to be enough to just provide some quality content, now ...
Don't keep up. Don't become a techno-anything! It is so overrated. I'm a web designer, married to a programmer, and I wish I could just get away from the damn computer. You've got a blog, which makes you techno-savvy enough for today. Facebooking is okay; don't bother with other sites. They're not worth your time.
All you have to do is make friends with one of the many people who actually enjoy all this techno-whatever. Lunch with that person regularly and ask if any interesting new things are happening online that might pertain to you as a writer. Keeping up is strictly for those who love techno-geekery; being an expert is for the geekiest of those. Why torture yourself? Go outside (or curl up with a book) and live!
I like your advice!
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