I’ve been thinking recently about my ‘web presence’. I don’t blog anymore. I haven’t in years. I’d like to get back into it but I suffer from the same problem I always have - whilst I enjoy writing, I don’t really feel like I have anything to write about. I’ve never been good at writing about industry stuff (this may be something to do with what industry people seem to refer to as ‘imposter syndrome) and I just don’t feel inclined to write about personal stuff. The latest incarnation of my blog still exists here at petelambert.com, although it is a little broken and I lost a lot of my older articles in a database mishap about 8 years ago..
I don’t have a ‘portfolio’. I stripped that back at http://petelambert.com to just a page of chatty text a few years ago. I’ve been working happily at Logikcull since 2010 and I’m not courting alternative employment or freelance projects. I don’t really have anything to show for what I do at Logikcull because, whilst I’m proud of it, it’s all behind a wall, so there’s nothing I can portfoliate anyway.
I’m obviously still on Twitter but I hardly ever post now. I retweet stuff that I like and I chat with friends on there, but I don’t really feel like I’m contributing much to the general feed of tweets. It's not the same Twitter I enjoyed in the first few years of its incarnation. I put a bit more effort into Instagram, which is a fun way to share my photographs, but doesn't do what Flickr used to. I disabled my Facebook account a few weeks before the last election.
I’ve started occasionally submitting my photos to Unsplash (http://unsplash.com/@peterjlambert) and that’s quite nice, but feels quite anonymous. That might be what I like about it. I kind of like seeing the stats on how many times my photos have been downloaded. It feels a lot more rewarding than a ❤️ on Instagram.
My place on the web has changed, the web has changed and I’ve changed. I used to be a contributor, but now I feel like I’m very firmly in the consumer column. It feels a little lazy and negligent.
Maybe I want to change back. If I do, I need to get excited about something first. I can’t see a comeback coming in the guise of writing about web design. That’s a door I’ve been banging on for over a decade and I just can’t get into it. I don’t think it’d be personal stuff. I’m a little wary of oversharing on the web these days. Maybe I should write about road cycling, cyclocross or mountain biking. Maybe snowboarding (I’m going on my first snowboarding trip next Spring). Maybe something different. Maybe writing’s not the answer.
Maybe there is no answer and I should just settle lazily into my happy life as a consumer of content diligently produced by those more engaged than I.