I’ve done a bit of an overhaul here on my website—it’s been a few years since I last updated it, and one of the features I’ve decided to not only add, but to actually make the centerpiece of this website is…of all things, a blog.
Yes. A blog. You may be asking yourself, “a blog?” Why would he want to start a blog, of all things?” Or, more likely, you’re probably not asking yourself anything, because you’re probably not here reading this post—because it’s 2022 and this is a blog post.
Back in the wild west of the Internet, I had one of these things. And then, life got busy (and busier), and the world moved away from them. Observations that once took place in the form of short essays are far more likely to take place in a pithy paragraph-sized thought (or short line-by-line sentences that…make…you…click “read more”…and keep…scrolling) on LinkedIn—or in a batch of quick, meandering thoughts on Twitter.
And who exactly is seeking out long-form content in disparate places on the web when bite-sized content is easily accessible in self-contained ecosystems?
With that comes the notion of our attention spans—both in terms of writing long-form (which was definitely a practice) and in terms of consumption, as well. Yet, at the same time, there seems to be a growing movement towards the long-form once again—there’s growing attention, for example, on communities like Substack that are beginning to mirror RSS readers and newsfeeds. And especially as I’ve been reading and influenced by writers and thinkers like Cal Newport, who talk of Deep Work and of purpose, I’ve started to miss what used to be a multiple-times-per-week period of reflecting and writing on the medium I spend my working days on.
Thinking back, the act of writing blog posts helped me sift, complete thought experiments, and take the time to journal—not in a personal sense (although sometimes)—but in terms of active writing. I don’t quite take the time to reflect as much as I used to. Part of that, I think, is growing a bit older and having younger kids. And while I write and create all day, I don’t write for myself. And I kind of miss that.
So, I’m going to challenge myself and see where this goes. I don’t expect anything more than personal enrichment—a medium where I can simply ponder and write about digital strategy, culture, communication, and life in general. If it’s just a place where I can gather my thoughts and reflect, then that’s perfectly wonderful to me. I’m not exactly sure what this would turn into, but I’m interested in seeing what happens.
Brad Levinson
Brad Levinson is a digital strategist for nonprofits. He lives in Philadelphia.
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