Update: With the anticipated absence of Google Reader, I’ve decided to subscribe to the blogs I love the most (via e-mail and Mac Mail’s RSS reader).
I used to tell anyone and everyone how much I love Google Reader for keeping up with my favorite blogs. I do love it still, but I haven’t been using it anymore because the number of blogs I follow has gotten completely out of hand. I subscribe to hundreds of blogs there and the “unread posts” count was sky high. So over the last few weeks, I started at the top with my “artistic inspiration” folder and methodically worked through all the posts until I got to my “writing” folder. Each day I would read any new posts that came up in my already cleared categories and then start anew. I have some sorted into classes I’ve taken and my “Friends from Behind the Scenes” and “One Little Word” folders were particularly daunting!
In the process, I subscribed to e-mail updates of a few of my favorites, many of which you saw in Monday’s list of my friend Robyn’s favorite blogs. They come to my inbox, I read them and comment if I want to, and delete. The ones left in Google Reader are there for a rainy day when I have nothing else to do… never gonna happen.
My “life” online has gotten busier and busier. I find that when my daughter is in preschool, I can spend the entire time on my laptop if I let myself. Checking e-mail and editing pictures is a must, writing new blog posts and replying to comments is a priority every day, and catching up with whatever classes I’m taking is just plain fun.
I enjoyed catching up with many many friends but I have to tell you… I unsubscribed to quite a few blogs. I simply can’t keep up, nor do I want to. I must simplify or I predict I’ll be tied to my computer for more and more hours a day. The friends that I want to interact with are those to whom I feel an authentic connection. I want this blog to be a vibrant community and I want to be able to know you as you know me. If you comment here, I want to be able to take the time to reply thoughtfully and to know more about who you are. I want to visit your blog, etc. So the random book review and photography blogs are no longer on my radar.
Social media can be awesome (who doesn’t love Pinterest?) but it seems we can cast a very wide net if we let ourselves. I also started “tweeting” in December (gosh that sounds dumb) and immediately found myself following people and news sites that clogged up my feed with info I don’t really need to know. So I have to figure out how to best use that too or I’m going to go insane. 🙂
My strategy (if you can call it that) for being in the world thus far has been to consciously ignore most external stimuli. I am very sensitive to negative news stories, quite prone to extreme worrying, and love my own company. So I rarely turn on the tv, look at Facebook, or go out with groups of people. (Thankfully, my hubby tells me if there’s anything I need to know.) For awhile, I had a good balance, but now I notice I need to simplify again.
Tell me how you manage to keep your life online in check.
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