Sometimes I feel like a headless chicken chasing it’s own tail when it comes to this blog.  Originally I started this to document the process of career change, but I’m just not getting in to the flow of the documentation.  Then I lost focus as I sometimes do and realized I want to have more options in design and format, which became this whole mountain of self hosting which transitioned in to yet another idea.

I started thinking, if I’m going to blog about career change, then I need to offer resources and ideas like all the Scoopit news articles I have curated when trolling the google machine for ideas about work and career.  I tend to be a “helper” so rather than gathering together first what I need for this process, my first instinct was to provide as many links and resources as possible for interested people who might come across my blog.

Way to draw them in Andrea, but helping them click away sooner. hahaha.

Part of what’s humorous about that, to me, is that I always manage to turn whatever the obstacle of the day is into my current project. I easily lose sight of my process of self discovery and get wrapped up in “okay, I know a bunch of info now about how to find my ideal career, now how do I help others by getting them this information if they want it?”  Funny thing is, that’s not a bad thing, wanting to helpfully disseminate info to others rather than focusing on my original mission. I know it’s a good thing. But it highlights for me how easily I lose the plot even when I’m my central character.

Now (literally weeks later) I’m realizing this little blog about documenting my career change process was never enough for me. If I’m going to document the process then why not turn this platform into a well rounded (so much as my non-techyness can) multi-disciplinary resume promoting myself.

Oh gag, I cannot believe I said that out loud. Promoting myself. I just threw up in my mouth a little. So uncomfortable, just the thought.  I don’t want to promote myself. I just want to work, with cooperative people in a cooperative and mentally stimulating and healthy atmosphere. I do not want to have to plaster my face on virtual billboards to get there.  But, essentially, I am now because of how I want this webpage to turn out.

So the voice in my head is perpetually telling me I’m not blogging right.  It’s hilarious to listen to the voice sometimes, arguing with itself, erm, myself. Or..well…I guess the voice in my head that says I’m not blogging right is arguing with the other voice in my head that says the other voice just doesn’t know what’s going on.  And I’m down below, glancing up periodically wishing I could focus long enough on one idea or project to actually figure out what idea I like best and what project is more important and that those arguing, niggling voices would start cooperating with the master plan.  While the truth is that I have so many ideas and am inspired in so many directions that I want to see everything through no matter how scattered it may look to others.

You see, this blog about documenting my career change process actually turned rather quickly into yet another one of my creative projects that I want to mold into this idea I have in my head*, but because I have no bloody idea what I’m doing technically it’s really just a lab experiment gone public.  🙂

*how redundant and silly is it to actually say that I have an idea…and just fyi in case you didn’t know…it’s in my head.  

I’ve managed to link to Linkedin. Cool. Today I tried to link to About.me until I realized that About.me is really just a page where they gather all your links to dozens of other social networking sites in one place.   For chrissake, all I wanted was somewhere I can easily upload class presentations to link them to this blog as examples of my work. Now I’m faced with another website that wants my facebook, twitter, pinterest, smarterer and 2 dozen other accounts attached just so I can link them to this blog and …

in the end I realized one thing.

..wait. Smarterer? A social networking site where I can take tests? OMG that’s awesome.  I love taking tests. I’ve actually thought about creating a site where people can find others based on answering an endless stream of questions that funnels people together who are similar… hmmm I’m just gonna click… FOCUS ANDREA.

sign.  In the end I realized one thing.

I don’t want 3 dozen social media accounts. I don’t want the stress of having to know which account is for what, and to have to update them. I don’t want to discuss politics on twitter or facebook.  I want to discuss politics over coffee with other humans. I don’t want people on about.me to know who I am and follow me because I have the best combo of wordpress/tumblr/twitter/whoosit and am able to express my 2013 fabulosity like the extrovert I most decidedly am not.

Because seriously. For real. WHO NEEDS a dozen social media accounts? Who has that kind of energy? Those people freak me out.  😉

I’m just here, reinventing the wheel just for fun, molding my own little slice of creativity.  Simply to satisfy myself and hopefully help others and maybe, if I’m lucky, to get the attention of somebody who’ll consider me the next capable  person they want to hire or work with not in spite of my bakers dozen list of ideas and current projects but because of them.

I know it seems like I spend mucho blog time venting and processing, but for me this is part of the process of purging years of the past and figuring out the best future.  I learn something new every day about who I am and what I NEED or refuse to deal with in my next professional incarnation.  With this come less insecurity and more self acceptance.  And in the process of that I also learn more about the people around me and even my current job (because there’s no better case study for work dysfunction, believe me).

I apparently will never be able to write one of these things less than 1000 words, no matter how hard I try. 😉

 

 

11 Responses to Social Media Schizo-faux-phrenia

  1. Carrie Rubin says:

    The online world can be overwhelming I think, particularly in regards to social media. I’ve had people tell me I need to be on Pinterest; I need to do more with LinkedIn; I should do this or that. I can barely keep up with my blog, Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook. I have a LinkedIn account, but I do nothing with it other than connect with people who seek me out. There are only so many hours in the day, and I’m learning that if I’m involved in social media, I need to be enjoying it, otherwise what’s the point? (Yes, I know, marketing is the point, but I’m losing steam on that front…) I wish you well in your own navigation through this maze. Hopefully you’ll find that ever-elusive balance we all seek. 🙂

    • andrea1 says:

      I knew you’d understand this, Carrie 🙂
      Part of me wants, feels this inner drive to -clean up Facebook and make it only friend/family personal stuff -get a twitter account and use that to participate politically in the world -get tumblr to, god I don’t even know, farther refine my Pinterest activity? (Pinterest is amazing and addictive btw, NOT social pressure at all..lol) There’s this side of me that gets the point and wants to participate, but there’s also the side that in some paranoid way thinks “they’re sucking you in, don’t let yourself get sucked in” and wants to maintain my SMALL core friend group and not interact with the world. It seems really natural and deeply unnatural at the same time. Jeez, in 20 years I bet we’ll all be wired to each other via wifi chips in our brains…. But then I see a new website or idea and my childlike curiosity goes “ooooh, cool, look at the pretty lights and moving images!” hahahaha

      I’m eternally fascinated by the difference between you and I versus the socially driven extroverts who thrive with all the required export of energy.

      • Carrie Rubin says:

        Honestly, if it weren’t for my book being published, I doubt I would have jumped on board with any of this. I liked my online anonymity. But in retrospect, it turned out to be much more fun than I imagined. Online interaction really is an introvert’s dream come true. Small sound bites, no small talk, and all from our own private little spaces. 🙂

        By the way: “in 20 years I bet we’ll all be wired to each other via wifi chips in our brains”—talk about a great premise for a novel. Get cracking on it!

        • andrea1 says:

          😉

        • andrea1 says:

          If you’re bored sometime this summer, I added a couple clinical power points to my top menu under Work Projects. They’re not peds though. Simplified CMEs for rehab dept. 🙂 Can I say I’m published now since it’s officially on the google machine? lol

          • Carrie Rubin says:

            Yes. I think you can. 🙂 And bored? What’s that?…

          • andrea1 says:

            One persons bored is another persons toilet reading, I guess. My sister used to tell me, save the most boring text books for the magazine stand by the toilet. You’ll learn stuff there.

  2. jmmcdowell says:

    My social media presence is STILL limited to the blog and my personal Facebook page. 🙂 And I’m totally okay with that. Call me old-fashioned, but I think casting ourselves to the million winds of social media outlets only dilutes our presence and weakens what we have to say. We’ll never succeed in finding everyone who might be interested in what we have to say. And why should that matter? Modern humans survived for tens of thousands of years without such worries. I would rather focus on what I’m comfortable with and where I feel I can best be me. Anything beyond that is probably too much a case of diminishing returns.

    • andrea1 says:

      I tend to agree with you. I’m finding the “social” sites I like best are the ones that serve a personal purpose I wanted anyway. Pinterest for collecting beautiful ideas, goodreads for books, Scoopit for saving articles w/out cluttering my phone and slideboom for hosting my power points. I still have no use for Twitter. I like your perspective in it, dilution… Exactly. Thanks for coming by 🙂

  3. I was tested for ADD…and since it was a computer test, a very long test, and since I, also, love taking tests, I enjoyed myself thoroughly, didn’t stop or get distracted, and I passed with flying colors. I left feeling as if my enjoyment of testing invalidated the ADD test for me.

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