Sharing

Ever try a neti pot? They are supposed to be great for preventing sinus infections. My mother gave me one many years ago, but I never tried it. It sounded gross and I was not sure I knew how to use it. But, I kept it just in case. Then one day, I was watching Cougar Town, and the dad on the show used one. He was not at a doctor’s office and he was not magically cured; it was just a silly scene:


Suddenly I said to myself, “I can do that.” So a few days later, when I was stuffed up, I did. It was actually pretty easy and made me feel better. Sometimes you just need a little push (but not from your mother). My blog is like that. I hope that by reading about my personal and business exploits, it will help people in their own lives. There is a saying that goes something like “Once you shine a light on something, it is not so scary anymore.”

Some people like to share; other people like to stay private. When I was a younger, I hated changing my clothes in front of other kids. At camp, I would rush to the locker room after swimming, so I would be done changing before the other kids even got there. Shirts and skins basketball games were a nightmare for me (when I was skins). Related to that, I went all four years in high school without ever once using the bathroom, which was probably some kind of record.

Now in my 40s, I just don’t care anymore. I’ll answer the door in a towel if needed, and I don’t check to make sure the shades are down when I get undressed. Maybe that is just part of getting older, but I assume that is also how the younger generation feels, with sharing photos of their lunch on Twitter, Instagramming selfies from a Taylor Swift concert, and posting their relationship woes to Facebook.

It is about more than just releasing your inhibitions, though. It is about wanting to share and wanting to be seen and heard. Before texting and social networks, kids used to pass folded-up notes to each other in school. Some kids would also keep secret diaries and made a big deal about locking and hiding them. Just the act of writing it down was a form of sharing, even if nobody else read it.

Then came the Internet and everything changed. First, people started sharing in forums and chat rooms. Next was YouTube, where anybody could be a star. Soon, Twitter and Facebook led to oversharing. Now we are all part of the sharing economy. People share their apartments (Airbnb), their cars (Uber), and their money (peer-to-peer loans).

Unboxing videos. Ever heard of them? They show adults or children opening a new toy and trying it. It is kind of like a toy review, without the review part. With billions of views on Youtube, they are just as popular as Justin Bieber videos. You know another type of video kids are addicted to? Minecraft. Just watching people (mostly adults, such as Stampy) play Minecraft, talk about it, give hints and tutorials, and act silly. No wild stunts, no explosions, no crazy cats or epic fails. Just simple sharing.

I blog to be heard. I write songs to be heard. When I make websites, I get satisfaction from knowing people use something that I created. And, each website is in some way an expression of myself. With each blog posting/song/website I feel like I am giving birth (yes women, I know it is not really the same). I labor over it, have high hopes for it, and then set it free into the world.