Image by Maxine
I’ve been feeling a bit philosophical lately, being smack dab in the middle of Sophie’s World. So beware. I might even should beware myself. Writing posts in the middle of a philosophical muse is probably not the best idea. But it has gotten me thinking about the work I do.
Ever since I found out about the internet (that would be in 1995, when my family got our first computer), I’ve been magnetized to it. It has pulled me in and somehow replaced part of my actual world. As I think I’ve mentioned before, a large portion of my life is lived online.
Most of the time, I’m happy with it. I enjoy my work. I can work for ten straight hours and not realize that I haven’t eaten. Or blinked.
But then sometimes I wonder…is this whole thing even real? What makes something real? Is it more real if you work in a busy office with twenty other people? Would it be more real if my work were on canvas hanging somewhere? Is it more real when people talk about it? When people purchase something from a website I designed? When some kind of physical transaction takes place?
And what about all of these people I know online? These relationships I’m building…are they real? (By now you’re thinking…yep, you definitely should have waited until the philosophical trip was over to write in your blog again. And you’re probably right. But I do have a point…)
Web work is real because it has influence. Sitting here in my home office, typing this post, I have influence. And if you have any kind of web real estate, you do too. If you work on the web, at least part (if not all) of your job is to increase your influence. Most of what we do on the web needs to be accomplishing one of two things:
- Paying the bills
- Increasing our influence
Period. Anything else we’re doing is fluff and can be eliminated.
So that’s what I’m working on this month. I’m de-cluttering my web life by evaluating where I spend my time and where I NEED to be spending my time. Is it paying the bills? Is it increasing my influence? If no, it gets dumped. If yes, I embrace it like a long-lost uncle.
What one thing can YOU eliminate? Think real hard. (And Kelvin, I know what you’re thinking. Yes, you still have to read my blog.)
4 Comments
This post certainly sparked up some philosophical thoughts. And just while I was lost in my thoughts, I read that last line and then all those philosophical thoughts were gone, replaced with two words: “what the”. Thanks a lot for snapping me out of deep, philosophical thoughts, Sarah.
I really like Kyle’s monologue in the South Park episode “Imaginationland part3″:
“Think about it. Haven’t Luke Skywalker and Santa Claus affected you more than most real people in this room? I mean, whether Jesus is real or not, he’s had a bigger impact on the world than any of us have. And the same can be said for Bugs Bunny… and Superman, and Harry Potter. They’ve changed my life, changed the way I’ve acted on the Earth. Doesn’t that make them kinda real? They might be imaginary, but… but they are more important than most of us here. And they are all going to be around long after we are dead! So in a way, those things are more real-er than any of us.”
If you define “real” as the existence of a person instead of a fictional character, if you define “real” as having physical interaction with someone, if you define “real” as consistency between someone’s online avatar and offline personality, then that’d be another story. If you define “real” as having influence, then your online relationships are all very real.
Haha.
Good stuff, Kelvin. I’m impressed!
I know exactly what you mean, there are times when I go home and wonder what it is that I even do all day since the web sites I create are in cyberland and aren’t concrete in any way. I think that’s why I started knitting in my spare time — I needed to make something tangible.
Gorgeous site, by the way, I absolutely love it.
Thanks, Tamara! Maybe I should consider it. I actually do knit from time to time, but I am too impatient for it, I guess. I have a scarf that I’ve been knitting on for the past two years.