Apropos my recent post, the blog Murketing describes tweeting as play. I can't really comment because I don't use Twitter, but Rob belabors some of the same saws I do. Also, his writing feels uncannily like mine.
One point Rob makes is that Twitter users describe it as productive because that's more socially acceptable than calling it play. Remember me saying people justify DIY by saying it saves money? Yeah. We find it necessary to rationalize so many healthy things. What healthy things aren't we doing because we can't rationalize them? Things like, maybe, nothing?
Meditation is healthily doing nothing. It was popular in the '70s but fell out of favor, being replaced by gym memberships and aerobics, which are healthily doing something.
ReplyDeleteMaybe Americans aren't ready to do nothing. To face what's left when every distraction is removed.
"His writing feels uncannily like mine."
ReplyDeleteJust for the record: I'd not read your post before finding your blog through my "incoming links." Do not believe I'd ever seen your blog before, not familiar with you or your writing. I'll check it all out now, but I want to be clear, because of what you're implying -- and what you're implying is actually pretty serious -- that what I wrote had no connection to what you wrote. At all.
I am very explicit in my post about what inspired it -- the interview that I linked to. I am very, very scrupulous about giving credit. If what I wrote had anything to do with you, I would have said so.
Again, now that I'm familiar with your blog, I'll check it out.
--Rob Walker
Oh, Rob, I'm sorry, I didn't mean to imply anything of the sort. There was certainly no accusation intended. Anyway, if you've read my earlier post on play, you can see that the content of what we've written really has very little to do with each other.
ReplyDeleteWhen I said your writing felt like mine, I was trying to express something about perceived authority. When someone writes something in the same way I would have written it, I'm more likely to take them seriously. It's sort of a written extension of tribalism.
Got it -- my mistake, and yes afterward I did read your post -- interesting & well done!
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