Making conversation

While I love participating in events such as the rhizothings and other connectivist happenings, they can be both overwhelming and isolating at times. Overwhelming because of the sheer volume of content that is being disseminated; isolating because while everybody is sharing with everybody else, sometimes it doesn’t feel like anybody is listening to what others are saying.  There’s nothing lonelier than a tweet with no favourites, replies or retweets, a blog post with no likes or comments, or a forum post with no interaction.

Of course, there some folk who are amazing at sharing what others have done, responding to what they are saying and encouraging them (you know who you are!), and I thank everybody who ever takes the time to engage with what I say or do. I’m conscious that I often do not so as much as I could to let other know how much I appreciate what they do, so I’m going to make a conscious effort during #DigiWriMo to practice something Terry Elliot suggested recently (sorry, Terry, can’t remember exactly where you said this). For every blog post I write I am going to make sure I comment meaningfully on at least 5 others.   I’m not much of a one for setting myself goals, objectives or outcomes when I enter into these events, but this seems like something I should aspire to do.

Image credits

flickr photo by david roessli http://flickr.com/photos/davo39/3982526653 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license

flickr photo by fruity monkey http://flickr.com/photos/gilesrcook/5346737067 shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license

flickr photo by Saarblitz http://flickr.com/photos/saarblitz/15508813887 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-SA) license