Every once in a while, I have the urge to consolidate the scattered pieces of the online me. And every time I try to bring those pieces in, the web keeps dragging me back out again.
The last time I redid this blog, the intent was to consolidate: continue the journalism-related blogging, pull in my Twitter feed, publish photos here… It worked fine for a while, at least until the blogging became sporadic (more on that in another post).
And, meanwhile, the web kept spinning out new socially-driven places to park bits and pieces of me. Without taking into account those services I’ve signed up for and since abandoned (hello, MySpace), my i-addresses include Flickr, Linked In, Twitter, Facebook, Delicious, Publish2 and a couple of Yahoo newsgroups.
Over the weekend I added Quora and Tumblr to the mix, Quora because is looks interesting and Tumblr as the platform for my take-a-photo-a-day-in-2011 project.
Being here, there and everywhere, indeed.
I’ll admit to being a follower, jumping in (usually later rather than early) on the newest hot thing. It’s my nature, and part of the nature of the web.
What keeps me out there is the value that I find: each of the services that I stick with adds something. Which is all for the good, but it means, I suspect, that scattered me, online is my norm and any thought I have of consolidation is pretty much a pipe dream.
Tags: identity, online, social media
I’m having exactly the same concerns, still haven’t managed to consolidate anything!
Sometimes often do not know what to do, to find the right direction
I was scattered way before the internet/social media, etc.
You would think I would’ve lost all hope of attaining focus … but thanks to the internet I now have Life Coach, who is helping me gain focus despite being pulled every which way.
I can understand your frustration with being scattered around the internet. Despite my best efforts to put everything I’m doing in one place (my blog) I have had about as much success as you. But is it really all that bad? I don’t think so. There is so much good stuff popping up all the time on the web that you can’t really go wrong. Good luck with the consolidation though. It’s easier said than done.
I got a spam-mail/e-mail the other day about a $99 service that would sign you up for every social/brand site you haven’t yet. That was a bit steep, but I’d probably pay $99/year to sign up tincanman2010 for anything new that looks promising.