Image Source: http://www.readwriteweb.com/images/web20time.jpg

This graph is obviously fun to look at becomes it implies a continuum based on time. As I read it, I start to feel that everything is either this or that. . .it’s fun to look at this but I’ll go ahead and say that I blog and run a site or two, but I don’t follow yelp, trip advisor or keep a facebook group or myspace page. I’d like to think that I’m connected to others via Twitter and Technorati’s Who links to my blog, and that my sites enable me to have the illusion of connecting with others, and in some cases, some of you do leave comments (thank you!).

And, while I’m not sure how this all connects, I was fascinated to read Clarence over at Remote Access:

I’ll never have an “important” job in my life…Lately I’ve been questioning many things and I thank many people who have had much patience with me, but I’m also learning to accept many things about myself. I’m learning to accept that I’ll never be someone with a title and a nameplate on my door. I’m learning to accept that my disregard for the way things “need” to be done will cost me throughout my career. I often have massive philosophical disagreements with tradition and the need to do things in certain ways when I feel that common sense should be enough to get us by. I’m also realizing more and more the importance of living honestly with yourself no matter what the cost may be.

As I read this, and look at the continuum, I find myself asking, what technologies help us live more honestly with ourselves, no matter what the cost? How can technologies help us better understand the massive philosophical disagreements with tradition and the need to do things in certain ways and to express those better? And, what drives each of us to do something even when it harms our opportunities for a job, a relationship, or prevents us from achieving what our parents always described as “successful?”

I am disembedding myself from Web 2.0, which, for me, inflated my ego to the point where I thought that my identity predominantly and fundamentally was the character I created and managed through my virtual personas.”
Source: Charlene Croft, Meta-Culture via Stephen’s Web

When I read Clarence’s words, I immediately thought of Charlene. Bloggers like Clarence, as well as others, find ways to use technology to deepen their understanding of who they are as a person, rather than seeking to create a persona online. The only way that ego-inflation occurs–not that I’m a psychologist (unconditional positive regard) or psychiatrist (give me drugs)–is when you lose who you really are, when you fail to face who you are. When I look in the mirror, I hope that I’m seeing most of who I am…and parts of that image are fantastic (i won’t elaborate) but others that I don’t trot out every day for another look are there, as well. I have to face both or risk being less of who I am as a whole person.

I was recently having similar thoughts as Clarence. However, I was saying, “I’ll never finish my doctorate, why did I begin? Ahh, who cares.” And, “I’ll never be a deputy superintendent or superintendent, but did I really want that?” Or, “I’ll never be an A-List blogger no matter what I do because I can’t get that deep thinking going. In fact, I don’t like deep thinking at all.”

And, then it hit me, I am special the way I am. And, at almost 40, it’s nice to realize that. My children are growing up, I need to lay aside some of this hard-pushing to get ahead I’ve been doing (the rat race)…and it doesn’t matter what rat races you’re running, they’re still just that. Watching the Story of Stuff video clip on Presentation Zen, I’m reminded of a truth many of us forget.

We don’t have to have all the titles, all the stuff that others tell us define success to BE successful. Simply, what defines success is to maintain our integrity in the face of those who would change us to match their concept of what we should be. It is to acknowledge our mistakes without rancor, towards self or others…to be transparent about our learning so that our students can learn from us, not transitory content, but HOW to learn and live and keep on learning for the fun of it, rather than just the necessity of achieving success.

Maybe, it’s a 40 year old thing…maybe it’s a middle age thing, but I’d like to think that our real enemy isn’t the other guy stopping us from trying to be like him, but ourselves trying to be like the other guy.

So, that continuum up there really isn’t about time…what we need on the right hand end is LOTS of HONESTY/Transparency. Of course, I think that once we reach that, we’ll be like the hermits and mystics who find themselves alone in the desert…we’ll be nuts because we’ve achieved enlightenment. How we get there, well, it’s immaterial. I hope you take time to be you, and if the tech applications that connect us enable that, then great!

---

---

Subscribe to Around the Corner-MGuhlin.org

---

Be sure to visit the ShareMore! Wiki.