Tuesday, 26 May 2009

• variations

  blogging is to writing what the digital camera is to photography.  anybody with sufficient access to it can attempt to do it.. which is to say that not everyone who does it does it well.  

  i can still remember when cameras were for people whose profession depended on it or for those who could afford a camera and film.  but after digital cameras became more affordable and they started popping up on cell phones, everyone could become a photographer in their own right.  and i started to see those typical cliche photo shots from this and that angle.  and the wretched self-shot.  it doesn't get any worse than that.  i've done it plenty of times myself with my friends, each time kind of dreading that fact that cameras weren't really made to be turned on the photographer.  a true photographer remains behind the lens for the most part.  i think most times that one should never really shift from that position.  sure, a nice family photo is required now and then.  if anyone has a right to have a photo, i suppose it's a photographer.  but most likely, a photographer is more interested in photos of one's family and friends than of oneself.  no photographer ever regrets having so few pictures of themself.   

  anyhow, blogging is much the same thing.  twitter is probably the worst variation that has come out of it all.  a mini-blog that has a 140 character limit?  is such a thing even meant to be seen as a form of communication?  it's more of a blab thrown out into the wind.  if letters and telephone calls aren't enough to satisfy people's need for communication, it just means that these avenues of communication aren't being utilized as much as they could be..  and that's why we have such random and many times shallow forms of communication. 

  i don't have much against blogging or digital photography.  a lot of good has come from it, and equally bad stuff, but that's expected, and besides.. people have the 'write' to express and communicated via these things.  creativity comes out of such things.. but i do have a problem with certain things simply because it's personally annoying, which is why i don't want to get involved.  it almost forces me to communicate with people the way i was meant to. 

  i had a dream last night where i was setting up my facebook account.  but in my dream, your account would only be created after you edited your profile and pushed a final button.  i hesitated to click on it and woke up before i had the time to do it.  so.. no thanks facebook.  and a definite no to twitter.  if somehow, i exhaust the use of my phone and email, i'll probably go back to snail mail.            

  ideally, all variations should be symptoms of the real thing, not the other way around, not cheap substitutes.  too many people settle for so little.  but if that isn't the case and it seems too much to ask, those who love to blog excessively should write a novel, become an author..  blogging should in the least lead to serious and thoughtful writing.. digital photography to tasteful and artistic images.. twittering to meaningful and genuine personal communication. 

  i know many people who have facebook who maintain genuine friendships, and that's the wonderful thing.. that people can remain sincere when such things are not.  but one has to be honest when one communicates.  i wish communicating these days wouldn't be so much about establishing one's self image, but perhaps about establishing someone else, acknowledging and affirming someone other than oneself.  wouldn't that be lovely.

  peace.

   

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