I am not saying anything that we don’t already know about the web. But sometimes it is easy to be stuck in the mode of pressing ‘Like’ rather than ‘Publish’. We need to remind ourselves that the act of contributing on the web is not only writing a blog post. It could be as simple as writing a review, making a web annotation, commenting on a post that influenced you. Each creates an artifact on the web that can add to our body of knowledge on a diversity of topics.
The weird thing about this current moment is I’m left to wonder whether there’s an actual, definable surge in people on the internet rediscovering and discussing the original promise of the web because of everyone’s increasing frustrations with corporate social media’s community failings, or if the chatter always has existed at this level and to this degree (I get that it’s always existed as a sort of background hum) and it’s just that more people are noticing or participating in it because of everyone’s increasing frustrations with corporate social media’s community failings.
One thing I have noticed since beginning my process of moving my blogging over to Write House is that the minimalism has made me feel freer in how I write. Medium and WordPress made me rigid in how I thought about what and how to write. Longer, more thought-out missives, with titles, subtitles, and a featured photo. Drive-by thoughts were right out.
Not thinking about all of that, and only barely thinking about design issues, let alone themes or templates, has trended me back toward old-school blogging, where things were looser.