del.icio.us add.icti.on
I think I have it.
del.icio.us is exponential. So is the internet, but not in such a consistently fascinating manner. On random web pages, there are lots of links to places you don't want to go. On del.icio.us, there are nothing but links to places you want to go and links to places with more links to places you want to go. And those places also have links to places with links of places you want to go. It's beautiful, but it's scary too. I am already aware of enough regularly updated internet content to keep myself busy for life. For ten lives. And yet I always want more. Things I care about start dropping off the end, as what little free time I have is sucked towards the new and away from the old. Not to mention the real-world responsibilities that get shoved into the corner. Which reminds me, I really shouldn't be writing this.
So why do I want to discover new things when I have so many old ones? I suppose because the thrill of discovering a specific wonderful thing for the first time can never be repeated, no matter how great that thing continues to be. But at what point do we draw the line between consistency and discovery? Can we ever be satisfied only by the discovery of the new? If I spent my online life doing nothing but following del.icio.us backlinks, would that life be a good one? If I never used a service more than once or read more than one blog entry from any given author, would I be happy? I think not, and to prove it I can show you my core list of sites I check every day. But how do I decide who is on that list? Often it seems to come down to which places I remember to go regularly. Which seems like a fine solution, because what better criteria for memorability can there be but remembrance? But then one day I'll remember a great comic I used to read and go, "Why did I ever stop reading that? It's just the sort of thing I need!" But then I'll be daunted by the backlog of archived material and never get back into it.
But if I read/watched/listened to everything I love regularly, I would never have time to find anything new. And oh boy do I love finding new things. I don't know the way out of this vicious cycle. But I expect I'll find it somewhere here.
del.icio.us is exponential. So is the internet, but not in such a consistently fascinating manner. On random web pages, there are lots of links to places you don't want to go. On del.icio.us, there are nothing but links to places you want to go and links to places with more links to places you want to go. And those places also have links to places with links of places you want to go. It's beautiful, but it's scary too. I am already aware of enough regularly updated internet content to keep myself busy for life. For ten lives. And yet I always want more. Things I care about start dropping off the end, as what little free time I have is sucked towards the new and away from the old. Not to mention the real-world responsibilities that get shoved into the corner. Which reminds me, I really shouldn't be writing this.
So why do I want to discover new things when I have so many old ones? I suppose because the thrill of discovering a specific wonderful thing for the first time can never be repeated, no matter how great that thing continues to be. But at what point do we draw the line between consistency and discovery? Can we ever be satisfied only by the discovery of the new? If I spent my online life doing nothing but following del.icio.us backlinks, would that life be a good one? If I never used a service more than once or read more than one blog entry from any given author, would I be happy? I think not, and to prove it I can show you my core list of sites I check every day. But how do I decide who is on that list? Often it seems to come down to which places I remember to go regularly. Which seems like a fine solution, because what better criteria for memorability can there be but remembrance? But then one day I'll remember a great comic I used to read and go, "Why did I ever stop reading that? It's just the sort of thing I need!" But then I'll be daunted by the backlog of archived material and never get back into it.
But if I read/watched/listened to everything I love regularly, I would never have time to find anything new. And oh boy do I love finding new things. I don't know the way out of this vicious cycle. But I expect I'll find it somewhere here.
posted by Personman at 12:54 PM
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