Well, that pretty much sums up my relationship with "new media", however you want to define it (and I'm not sure I *can* define it, that's how nebulous my relationship with it really is).
However, in an attempt to become more knowledgeable, I do read a number of blogs regularly to try to figure out what I need to learn, where I need to go, just generally how I can become more savvy in a connected world that I don't really seem to grok most days.
One of the blogs that's become a regular is that of Chris Brogan (subtitle: A Conversation With Community About Digital Relationships).
Now, I don't know Chris Brogan, I've never met him, but I think anyone in the podcasting world who isn't living inside a vacuum (I'm not, really) has heard of Chris. He's one of the founders of the PodCamp (yes, I missed PodCamp Toronto last year -- I'm really hoping they do it again, because I think it's an amazing, powerful thing), and Chris, in his own words, is "a social media and networking expert specializing in the use of digital tools to build and strengthen online and offline communities".
And what I love about Chris is that he puts all of this in terms I can understand. I'm particularly keen on the "offline" community part of all this, too -- sometimes I feel that our offline lives are ignored or sacrificed for the sake of the online ones, and I think my resistance to all things Facebook-ish and Twitter-ly is probably a result of my feeling that there should be balance between offline and online, and neither should overshadow the other.
I'm probably not stating this as eloquently as I could, but I was prompted to post about this today after reading Chris's latest post, "How Opportunity Really Works".
I won't summarize it here, because I really couldn't do it justice. But go on, click on that link, and read it, because Chris has written a gem -- some of what he writes about I've learned in the last year, some of it I know I should be doing but I lack the confidence to feel comfortable doing it (hey, Chris has also written about confidence, more to think about!), and some of it was new to me, and I'm glad he presented me with an opportunity to reflect on it all.
While you're there, poke around -- Chris has also written some really interesting posts lately about how to use social media in a local setting, something I hadn't really thought about, but which gave me lots of food for thought.
(P.S. -- read the comments, too. Chris's readers are also thoughtful and insightful and add much to what he's written.)
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