Why do I blog?
Yes, it is ironic that I’d make a video about why I blog; I wanted to incorporate more nonverbal communication than is possible via words alone. In the segment, I lament my formerly top Google ranked post titled Comedian Wannabe.
Sidenote: Brian McLaren gets spotlighted, again, in WaPo, [ht: emergentvillage] and my friend Ken Archer of theologicalthought.com is quoted twice:
“The modern Christian formula of ‘I mentally assent to the fact that Jesus died for my sins and therefore I get to live forever in heaven’ . . . is entirely cognitive,” said Ken Archer, 33, a D.C. software entrepreneur who is studying philosophy at Catholic University. “It’s a mathematical formula [that] leaves the rest of our being unfulfilled.”
:
“What Brian is contributing is excellent questions that expose the modern roots of our spiritual angst,” said Archer, who has had long conversations with McLaren. “He sees the answers coming from others, and he has encouraged thousands of people, including myself, to find the answers.”
cf. best excerpted sound bites & pull quotes at Just Pastors.
And, yet, the mental assent is contained in…
“Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your mind, and all your strength…” I like this holistic approach… we are not just heart… we are also mind… we are not just mind… we are also passion and power… Can true love leave out any of these aspects?
An observation I’ve made about UX, not only my own but also those that visit sites I maintain, is that the young web-generation surfers are scanners at heart. Rarely do people read sites or blogs the same way they read a mag article or a book. Our eyes jump around the page, scanning for keywords or phrases in the text that we base our decisions on whether to read more or move on.
Vlogs counteract that behavior by asking the user to pause their surfing and focus on one site, on one particular piece of content. Unless there is information that is most effectively conveyed visually or better understood through a visually medium (recording an interview or conversation), my guess is that users abandon vlogs before getting to the end.
I’ve noticed with myself that if I choose to commit the time to playing a vlog, I still wander off to other parts of the site (“Open link in a new tab” is one of my most used FF features) and only listen to the vlog.
With that said, I enjoyed your vlog (and made it through to the end, I might add). It does add variety and adds emphasis to content that you felt impt. enough to share via video. I particularly like your point about blogs being a medium for dialogue/conversation.
Thanks for sharing.
DJ,
I am a total YouTube.com fan, so I am bummed that while I’m at a spare office on someone else’s computer, I can’t manage to play your vlog!
I’m sure it’s insightful. I just need to get with my computer at home later. Blogs are a place for dialogue. We still need to figure out the “face” part I talked to you about years ago.
I need to shoot you my newest set of photos, from Paris and the Cote D’azure. France is beautiful.
Imei
Ahh… I saw your vlog. Recognize where it was shot as well (oh so familiar).
And so I had to tag the comedian wannabe blog, to see what you were agonizing about. I too have this problem with dance. Imagine, the same 4 minutes and 32 seconds of music, and each time I practice, and especially each time I perform it, I am often required to “hit” certain positions, movement, emotions, and elicit audience response time after time. Now, double that amount of time, or triple it for my longer sets, and you see the problem. And yet, you would never say that about live music. Each time, it is different, a certain thing another musician once noted: “Music is 98% math, and 2% magic.” There is practice, and then there is performance.
As I have been hired for two more performances this month, I’ve been thinking over how to accomplish this. Yes, it is timing and delivery. But it is also something more. I think there is a place for visualizing the pleasure of your loved ones, not atracted to our narcissicm, but just enjoying us. It’s remembering that the cute kid that you once were as a child is still essentially who you are today. We press through our wounded places, and “put it all out there”. Thus, a vlog is no different from one of my performances.
Of course, I get “Tamara the trapeze lady” next to me, and you don’t!
I’m still looking for a photographer…