The Written Word

My favorite aspect of this site is by far the blogging. I didn’t realize how much I had overlooked this feature, and why I probably missed Myspace so much. I’m calling this place HeySpace anymore, btw – SpaceHey just doesn’t roll off the tongue for me.

Anyway, while searching for a *very* old email, I came across a draft of a MySpace blog/message that I wrote in 2007. I recognized the piece because I remembered writing it, however the style, word usage and sentence structure is far and away from anything I believe I could accomplish in 2025. We’re talking Howard Engel pre/post-stroke level here lol.

So, what happened? Yes, I have gotten older, but I can’t see that in itself as a major factor. My thoughts are certainly more goal focused these days due to the trappings of life – I have a house that’s half ripped apart that I am slowly renovating, more responsibility at work, and a twenty-eight year old vehicle that I am keeping alive and on the road. All in all though, not drastically different than my life nineteen years prior.

My media consumption is probably like most of you – mainly youtube or similar. That being said, my youtube playlist could best be described as ‘brutalist;’ primarily, middle-aged men repairing things. I don’t subscribe to the local newspaper any longer, but perusing their online offering shows a decline in their quality of writing as well. At least I’m not alone.

Reading was a bigger part of my life twenty years ago, but I’ve always been better at purchasing books than actually reading them. Generally, I’m a non-fiction guy, but I have made a few exceptions. My reading these days is mostly sourced from discussion boards, so I do in fact read as much if not more than in the past, but I am not consuming what anyone would call ‘professionally’ authored works.

I hate to continue to blame modern life and the internet for all that ails me, but it’s really the only solid culprit I can point a digit at. Reducing every media stream to clickbait-y, epilepsy-inducing content seems like a mistake in hindsight. And while youtube has certainly elevated the common man and woman, it also appears to have eroded formal speech beyond its url.

Aside from reading more, I don’t see any cure other than to continue to blog. My hope would be that whatever section of gray matter allows me to write is akin to a weakened muscle, and can be whipped back to fighting shape with a little training. Only time will tell.

If you have actually read this far, write! We can address the attention span issue in another installment lol.