Setting Sail

Greetings to outer space and to the virtual world. Today, I am setting sail, so to speak, out towards the vast open sea of the Web, what some may call the wild west of the future. Others call it the future of citizen journalism. Many just call it blogging.

To be honest, I’ve been quite afraid of blogging. And yes, I’ve been a hater as well, silently thinking to myself, “Blogs are for people with huge egos. Why do they think the whole world cares what they think? You’ve got to be pretty damn self-absorbed to start one of those.” And maybe I’m uneasy with my relationship with computers and technology in general. The Internet and computers, they seem to suck you in, your eyes bulging as you stare at your screen, mindlessly clicking on the next link, and then the next, scrolling down to read just one more comment…. and as your posture worsens, you remain motionless, hypnotized by the words and images onscreen, unable to pull away…  and then, fywhhhhhewwwwww, you take a deep breath and think, “wow, I was lost out there for a minute.”

In reality, I’ve just been afraid of posting. Cause secretly, I love to read blogs. Especially blogs focused on news. Yes I am a news junkie and a political junkie. And so far, I’ve been perfectly content remaining on the sidelines, as a reader, a quiet observer. Let me tell you, there are some very intelligent people out there leaving comments. But man, there is a TON of content, so much to read, so much junk to sift through. Who has time to do this? Is this the life I want? All day at a computer, or addicted to my RSS news feeds on my BlackBerry? Who has time to leave comments, or posts? And who wants an unedited track record out there, all tee’d up for Google searches, stalkers and backstabbers?

For quite some time, my friends and family have told me I should start a blog and have often asked how come you don’t write more often? They seem genuinely interested in what I have to say. Maybe I’m too modest: I don’t believe I’m a very good writer. I’m too much of a perfectionist, too meticulous, to make writing an effective use of my time. Next month, I begin classes at the brand new CUNY Graduate School of Journalism (after not feeling Columbia’s J-school during the admitted students open house– as opposed to CUNY’s J-school admitted students open house where I felt very welcomed, but more on that some other time) where I will be a proud member of the third graduating class. So now, I figured it’s finally time to join the fray. I’ll try to do my best. I’ll probably start pretty slowly, and write way too much (like this post), but remember, all these thoughts have been building up for some time now. 🙂

Thanks for reading.