Tag: public life

vote today!

// Tuesday, November 4, 2014

Facebook might be kind of terrible much of the time, but I really appreciate the fact that they emphasize Election Day and encourage participation through both the app and the website by displaying an alert banner link to the 2014 Voting [Poll] Information, which is easy to use and informative. The site is described as “a collaborative project supported by leading technology companies in order to make sure all registered voters in the United States have the information they need to Get to the Polls on November 4th.” I’m a fan.

If you have yet to vote today, go vote. I can be as cynical about politics as the next person, but on a certain level, I’m entitled to my approval/disapproval of how certain issues are handled because I voted and therefore took action in a way that has the power to shape how events unfold. I vote because I care; and even if the election results aren’t the ones I want, at least I tangibly expressed my opinion in a meaningful way.

The Massachusetts Secretary of State website has a wealth of information available. If you use their handy poll-finding tool (wheredoivotema.com), once you fill it out and view your results, there’s a link at the top to view the specific state election ballot for your city/ward/precinct. All relevant MA 2014 State Election information can be found in this 2014 Election Information pdf posted on the MA SOS website (if you’re cool like me and miss the days that hard copies were mailed out, you can also obtain a hard copy from your local public library, which is something I may or may not have done). Also, a decent overview of statewide candidates, etc., in Massachusetts can be found on BostonGlobe.com in this Voters’ guide to the Mass. general election.

There are four important ballot questions this election (again, in Massachusetts). (Behind the cut, because if you’re not a MA voter, there are a lot of words not specifically relevant to you.) But seriously: go out and vote. It matters. It’s your civic duty, and a privilege/right we are lucky to have.

Read More: MA Ballot Questions Information

personal versus blog!personal

// Tuesday, March 4, 2014

As much as I’ve been on the internet for forever, relatively speaking, in the past I haven’t been the most successful at actually maintaining a Public Persona Writing Blog, which is kind of how I think of it. The tone is different, and it’s not about publishing every single thought that comes into my head; it’s about thinking and planning and typing and editing, until there’s a final product that’s worth posting. I like the idea of being able to use that part of my brain on a regular basis, because it’s a type of writing that I miss (which is something I’ve touched on enough thus far that I won’t repeat myself). I am still figuring out the overall direction this blog is going to take, and I’m realizing that it is something I won’t know for sure until I post more, until I see what it is that I want to post more. I am, however, accumulating a number of drafts, of potential posts that I know I need to flesh out more before they’re something.

What I am currently struggling with – and I realize this is not unique to me – is where the line is between personal and blogme!personal: for example, I’ve had an instagram account since March 2012, and I’ve been fairly active there. There is a lot of overlap between the type of content I’ll be posting here (read: pictures of political books; of traveling; of  many, many cups of coffee), but there are also things that are separate from that, things that are still perfectly acceptable but outside of the realm of this blog. Do I link it? Do I create a separate instagram and re-post some of the pictures, acknowledging that they are reposts? Do I have a post, here, where I detail some of the places in said pictures and use said pictures, but start the new instagram from now, from pictures only taken after January 1, 2014? Am I overthinking this? (Hint: yes, yes I am.)

What it comes down to, really, is that throughout most of college, I had this phrase that I kept coming back to that related to being a lover of blurred lines (no relation to the Robin Thicke song, I assure you), referring to a number of things, but for example, how sometimes relationships aren’t always delineated the way one would expect, a sort of ‘modern romance’ problem, as it were. But as I’ve grown up and accumulated more life experiences, I don’t think that’s the best way to live, at least not in the broad sense. There are many, many areas of life where grey is good and acceptable and necessary, but so too are there many areas where  dividing things into at least reasonably rigid categories is the better option (Facebook is not for coworkers, per se; etc. etc. etc.). So given that, where does this blog fall? How much of my online identity is inherently tied to my private personal identity, versus my more standard public identity, or even my public professional identity? Where is that line, and to what extent does it matter?

I haven’t quite figured that out yet, but I’m working on it. If anyone has thoughts, feel free to share. I’ve been ruminating on this for quite a while and haven’t gotten any closer to figuring it out.