I guess I'm fairly old fashioned in that I always felt all my learnin' should be done with books. Sure, I knew the internet would change everything. Sure I wrote about how the internet is changing everything. But did I ever actually expect the vast universe that somehow seems to be flowing freely inside my laptop to be a source of information I could depend on? OK, so it's not really inside my computer, but it might as well be.
There's just so much and it's all so accessible, I don't even know what to say other than "wow." Thank G-d for having friends and strangers who tag and rate so I can dwindle some of the information down. My current list of blogs to follow is extensive, time consuming, and incredible. I could make a living sifting through blog entrees. I should try to figure out a new way to do that.
I found a new apartment, but don't get to move in until the 1st, so I've been stalking different design blogs for ideas and inspiration. I've also been trying to get immediate help and a little bit of guidance on my efforts towards small business internet marketing, seo issues, and copywriting. (Just a couple.) Then there's news blogs. And technology blogs. Art blogs, photography blogs, and poetry blogs. My bookmark list is out of control. (I never really got into del.icio.us and I heard it's pretty out of it as of late, so how are you guys keeping all your stuff organized? I can't handle my jumbled list anymore.)
So many different things. So much niche information. So much to learn.
After this weekend, while alternating a couple of SEO books I recently purchased and an assortment of blog posts, I realized that when it comes to current information, taking the time to find the right blogs (ones that are up to date, that you can trust, and have the information you're looking for) is well worth it. The present is such a temporary thing. All the information I'm looking for is constantly changing. Sure there are certain books that have information that might be relevant for the next...mmm... year or so, but the books I'm reading take time to be put together, to be published, to be put on shelves and for me to find and buy and then to find the information I'm looking for. With blogs, I just skip to that last part and it's usually free... and it would be as current as "2 Seconds Ago." The closest you get to that with a book is "hot off the press." But it's not even hot anymore.
I know. Duh.
The thing is, I feel like my secondary education had me trained to look at books for the best information. To spend 100s of dollars each semester for irrelevant knowledge because, well... it's embarrassing to say you went all four years without ever checking a book out of the library. Isn't it? I only had two professors in all four years of being a communications major, who encouraged me to look for course-relevant information (other than world news) on the web, but every single professor in every class made at least one textbook purchase a requirement. And here I am, out in the real world, practicing what I should have been trained for... and though I might know an awful lot about the history of advertising, I have absolutely no training on where it's going.
I promise I'm not discrediting books. I loveeee books. The classics and the novels and timeless faux philosophy. Poetry and pictures. Collections of short stories. I plan on having an entire room devoted to them once I design and build my dream home. With a ladder that slides. MMM...
What I'm really trying to say is, why are we all so hesitant to let go of print?
Did I, the aspiring novelist, just say that out loud?
But who's really original anymore? What's left that can remain timeless? Maybe the communications field has left me a little jaded when it comes to ink and paper.
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