Re: What is microblogging good for?

Sweet, I got a reply to my earlier post about microblogging!

I'll have to admit that I made the title a bit provocative in the hopes of a response. I've genuinely been puzzled about this for a couple of weeks now so I'm grateful, too.

First off, yes, I was convinced that microblogging is useful for something. The concept of public, final, interactive conversations on very specific details sounds interesting to a nerd. If this is the good, I think I've only seen the bad and the ugly. Sounds like there's potential when you follow the right people (and don't read posts by the wrong ones). I might have to see if I can find the right people on the Fediverse or twtxt.

Still, I don't think I have anything worthwhile to say in the micro format. My posts here would certainly benefit from less blabbering. But the longness of form is because I don't like to put in the effort to summarize. The point is not the single thoughts I'm expressing, but rather the thought process. If the beginning of this post was cut down to a couple of distinct ideas, what would they look like as tweets?

• True, microblogging has its potential uses. I was wrong!
• I wonder who to follow on Fediverse and twtxt.
• Long-form writing still seems to convey something these micro posts cannot.

With tweets like this I wouldn't follow myself. (That sentence would fit in a tweet, and is actually a worthwhile point!)

This is to say that I don't think I'm able to write interesting micro posts. Thankfully that won't prevent me from reading others' posts.

The meaning of life

According to my view on life, humans must leave traces. This is the only way to make their lives not miserable. A bad trace is a trace too, by the way. People we agree to call bad are remembered. Meanwhile, there are millions of people that we have no chance to remember because they left no trace. It's the worst.

I agree on the necessity of traces, of something to be remembered for. For most people the most important trace is their children. And so we have no chance to remember most people because their children are nobodies. Until they aren't.

I love how in English they say a dead person is *survived by* their children. You have some random dude called Perez or something that no one knows about, and then centuries later an important person is his descendant and the trace he left turns out to be very important.

Sure, I want to do other worthwhile things than just be a father. But what amazing achievements would I need to surpass my children? I've done bits of this and that and will do more of similar. But what are my blog posts or pieces of software compared to real human beings?

Still there is a chance of making something big by just doing your own small thing very well. Some writings have changed the world. So has some software. The chances are very slim, but I believe the more important thing is trying. My children will remember whether I always sat on the couch chilling to Netflix or whether I wrote and coded and built and composed and taught and created and invented and repaired, always trying my best.

And yes, as you can see, your post had an impact on me. Thank you, bouncepaw.

PS. With regard to your critique of modern society: I agree and am careful for exactly that reason.