I woke up today feeling “lost in the feed” and decided to do something about it.
The “lost” started as a frustration that missives I’d posted into the Twitter feed were seeing no responses, even when directed or specifically in response to an ongoing conversation. It is possible, as my girls will happily tell you, that comments I believe hysterical were, well… not. It’s also possible that Twitter is the most massive one way conversation on the planet, providing a perfect forum for those people who enjoy talking and not listening. We knew a couple in Boston like this – each would just start talking, generally aiming their voice at the other, but on two different topics, neither really caring that they were not actually having a conversation. It was a remarkable thing to witness. My family generously offered that in fact my comments were actually just lost in the Twitter feed, unseen and unremarkable, and as I thought about it I realized being heard mattered a lot less than what I was saying, or more importantly doing.
The blog was inspired by my wife’s decision to post online her intention run the Chicago marathon. Making public her dream of one day running further than a Boston driver can manage in an hour certainly raised her level of commitment, but maybe more importantly it created an entity to whom she became responsible for upholding her promise. With that in mind, I commit to making this blog serve the same purpose for me.
Okay, so what am I doing about preventing the ‘lost in the feed’ syndrome? I commit to doing 5 things each week to make others’ lives better – reminding them whenever possible that someone out there – even someone random – at a minimum acknowledges them, what they do and who they are. That may be the public piece of my commitment, but that’s not nearly enough, and my real goal is to find a way to help – not publicly, not with attribution, and not even with anyone other than me knowing it happened.
This presents a small conflict. To hold myself accountable I need to document my progress or failure, but I have no interest in creating a list of ‘all the wonderful deeds’ – not my point at all. Nor is my goal to inspire others or influence behavior. Maybe that will come later, but for now I just wish to be accountable to uphold my promise to myself.