Also useful, but even there, watching somebody else's plan develop, from a proposed meeting at Starbucks to whatever else, feels like the "legitimised" watching of a private conversation. The convention, as I understand it, is that any exchange with an @ in it, "an at conversation", is open for anybody to join.
Taking an interest in Twitter (@williamessex), which is relatively new to me. Apparent contrast between personal and impersonal, which doesn't quite correlate with private/corporate. There's the "we are on the bus" stuff at one extreme, and the "here is a link to my employer's latest press release" blah at the other. Both have their place, but idiosyncratic personal seems to work best. Twitter is a behind-the-scenes glimpse at its most alluring, I think.
Also useful, but even there, watching somebody else's plan develop, from a proposed meeting at Starbucks to whatever else, feels like the "legitimised" watching of a private conversation. The convention, as I understand it, is that any exchange with an @ in it, "an at conversation", is open for anybody to join. Not sure quite how to describe my perspective on social media. I've been writing - communicating - professionally for a very long time; doing it self-employed since I left the FT Group in 1996. Most of that time, I've been writing words for people to put in magazines. Some self-started projects - a book on the media, actually, and some children's books - but mainly commissioned work.
So you could say that I'm in the media. But I stayed out of the social media for a lot longer than many of my peers. Too busy writing, and perhaps too far out of the mainstream - you don't get to many media events if you live in Cornwall and write mainly for London. Even when I did get into social media, I didn't take it seriously. I started a Facebook page because the "chat" function was the only way to communicate with my daughter when she went travelling overseas. I've no memory of starting up my LinkedIn page, and for a long time I only visited it to accept connections (boy, it needs an update). This blog has been useful as a "morning pages" exercise (as in: Julia Cameron), and I'm now @williamessex on Twitter. I go to the monthly meetings of the Social Media Cafe meetup group in Truro, and I get frequent enough questionnaires from PR companies to know which social media I could be using professionally - although mostly I tick the <no> box. There isn't ever a <never heard of it> box. I've worked out that I could build a useful identity by connecting my various social media together and getting into the habit of updating them. No special advantage to doing that, but various downsides to not doing it. And missed opportunities. But that's not why I'm writing. My perspective as a "late adopter" gives me a dilemma. Way back in the time before social media, which for me is recently, it was possible to live distinct lives. Nothing sinister in that, and it hasn't gone away. People are different at work from how they are at home. Those two worlds intersect, but they're not the same. At the Social Media Cafe last time, people were talking about having separate business and personal Twitter accounts. All very normal. Except ... social media do represent an opportunity not to rebuild an old division. They are a simultaneously "push" and "pull" connection to the world, and maybe they could increase the openness in both directions. I'm writing this in my kitchen. Where I am "at work". I see the value of a social-media presence, both personally and professionally; I'm late to that party. I see that I'm several different people - family man, writer about finance, storyteller for children - and I can see that those roles don't necessarily complement each other. But I don't want to use these new (to me) social media to reconstruct the old (defensive?) barriers between my various personae. How do I mix it all together into one functional social-media me that doesn't bore everybody? At least part of the answer is: build it up gradually. Not least because every time I try to write one of those "personal profile" paragraphs, I get stuck on the "Who am I?" question. It was okay when the paper CV went to one person and was never seen again, but if half the audience (or all of it?) already know that I'm not really a dynamic, creative, self-starting team player ... what am I? Maybe I should ask them. |
What happens hereThis site is no longer updated weekly because I've taken to writing at Medium dot com instead. I may come back, but for now, I'm enjoying the simplicity at Medium.
No data is kept on this site overnight. Medium posts might sometimes turn up here, and posts from here might sometimes turn up on Medium.
Mind you, if you get a sense of deja vu when reading my work, that may be because you've lived this life before. Where are we now? We're hurtling round the sun, held to the ground by a weak force that we don’t begin to understand, arguing about trade deals between the land masses on a planet mostly covered by water.
The dolphins must think us ridiculous. No wonder they only come to the shallow water to play with us, not to signal their most complex philosophies. More. Riddle. It takes two to make me, but when I'm made, I'm only a memory. What am I? Scroll down to find out.
Is that a catastrophe I see before me? Could be. There was a clear sky earlier, but now clouds are encroaching from the North. We could be in for a storm. More.
![]() You found me!
Welcome. Thank you for coming. But am I the right William Essex? Click here to meet some more. Read My Shorts?
Here is yet another page of old blog posts and other writings. Sorry, but I need my metaphorical sock drawer for metaphorical socks. The link to the page is right at the end of the paragraph here.
Roads without end
Here is a passage from a review of the book The Road to Somewhere by David Goodhart. I haven't read the book (yet), but the collected reviews would make a worthwhile set of political arguments in their own right. More.
State of the Union
Several commentators today saying that they've lost confidence in the US. Making their point by talking up the glories of the past. After two weeks of this administration, they're not going back.
Were they wrong, and they've seen the light? Or has the US changed? I guess the latter is the intended meaning. But we should at least acknowledge the possibility... More. Categories
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