Chris: Do real life people blog.
I love the title of
Annie's post on her blog.
My Real Life Friends don't blog, but
if they did, they would be good at
it in quotes for this article and in
general, I'm borrowing Annie's definition
of what real life friends mean.
I'm using real life as a shorthand for
people I know and interact with in my
physical life versus my digital life.
I think online friends are real.
Annie's post hit on something that
I was talking with my friend Justin
Jackson about after he published
his 2024 year in review post.
It's very normal among my online
friends to post year in reviews
of all kinds for anyone to read.
And I assume it's also very
normal for people to privately
journal, that kind of thing.
But among my real life friends,
I don't know a single one that
posts any of that online other than
an Instagram slideshow template.
Why blog instead of journal?
I write on my blog to get thoughts
outta my head and somewhere else.
The main reason I don't just
journal it privately is that I'm
not motivated to write in a journal
the same way I am with a blog.
I write on my blog when
I figured something out.
If I went through the trouble of
learning how to fix or do something,
someone else might need that someday,
and nine times outta 10, that's someone
as me because I forget what I did
and end up finding my own blog post.
I read in my blog about things I
like or enjoy, whether it's music,
technology, movies or TV shows, a
book, my kids shoveling the driveway.
I try to limit my complaints about the
world to the 280 characters in most
social media posting boxes, because
that feels like enough negativity.
Sometimes it spills over into a longer
blog post, but only when I feel like
I can stand behind it long term.
I am also just vain enough to hope that
someone else out in the world might
appreciate or agree with my point of view,
that by saying it out loud online, someone
else might have the courage to go say
what they want to say out loud as well.
Context matters.
Going back to Annie's post, I resonated
very much with this paragraph.
Very occasionally one of my friends
or acquaintances will mention
something I wrote on my blog and
that is a weird moment for me.
Like, what?
You read that crazy?
I guess I don't expect anything I write to
leave the small online circle line habit.
So if it shows up in the small
offline circle line habit, it's odd.
Like when you have two different
friends groups and they all
show up at the same party.
End quote.
I've realized over my years of being very
online that real life friends often miss
context for why something is interesting
or important enough for me to write a
blog post, tweet, or record a podcast
episode about something that's a huge deal
in the Apple online world rarely escapes
containment enough to be a topic at dinner
with my extended family, for example.
And even when political news crosses
over, I rarely have to worry that
any of my real life friends or family
have read what I've written online.
But sometimes parts of me wishes they
did because it could be an interesting
conversation starter to dive deeper from
my a thousand words on a given topic.
Could be a diving board into some deeper
water we might be able to get into,
which is why you should start a blog.
Lately I've been trying to encourage
people to start a blog, both online
friends as well as real life friends.
I really believe it sharpens my mind
to have to string together words to
form coherent sentences, as well as
write something I know might be seen by
another human who might ask me what I,
who might ask me about what I've written,
or send me a spelling correction note
going back to Annie's post once more.
In quotes, it's kind of a shame
that my real life friends don't blog
because if they did, their blogs
would be interesting and kind and
creative and funny, and it's too bad.
My blogging friends don't live
close to me in physical terms
because they're also interesting
and kind and creative and funny.
We'd have some good parties, end quote.
In addition to blog, I'd add podcasting
or YouTube if they're inclined to
speak more than write a blog post.
Being willing to be vulnerable enough
to show up and be seen having at least
some of your opinions and thoughts
out in the wild for others to see.
Brene Brown's inspiration from
Theodore Roosevelt's man in the arena.
Speech comes to mind, quote,
this is who I want to be.
I want to create, I wanna make things
that didn't exist before I touch them.
I wanna show up and be seen
in my work and in my life.
And if you're gonna show up and be
seen, there's only one guarantee.
And that is you'll get your ass kicked
if you're gonna go in the arena and spend
any time in there whatsoever, especially
if you're committing to creating in
your life, you'll get your ass kicked.
If courage is a value that we
hold, this is a consequence.
You can't avoid it.