The 2023 Writing Journey
I remember being a kid, around 3rd or 4th grade. I had a lime green flimsy binder filled with poetry I would write. My parents collectively thought some of it was too dark for a kid my age but on the other hand they both stated that I was writing at a college level. Which looking back was odd since I was in the lower reading and writing level classes in the basement of my elementary school.
This compliment was a staple in my childhood because it wasn’t just coming from my parents, it was coming from my parents that were both teachers. They told me to keep writing, so I did in crazy numbers I would crank out poem after poem, short story after short story. I would run out of pencils and they would bring me a fresh pack pretty often.
Here I am at 26 wondering what happen to my drive. I never finish an article and it’s a rare occurrence when I finish a book even though my shelves are stacked to the brim.
After some thought I came to a couple of conclusions.
- Short attention span
- My realization of time
- Technology
By themselves they are not bad things, in fact some of them could’ve been tools to push my writing into something amazing. But together, they whipped up something I would connect to my generation, something the world hasn’t seen before.
Background:
I grew up in a nice little town, I was allowed very little tv time (maybe an episode or tow of Disney a day) and (if I was lucky) I was given 15–30 minutes of Club Penguin time. Besides all that I was always outside, I’d spend hours playing in make believe worlds as if I was Jesse Aarons from Bridge to Terabithia. My Mom even had a bell screwed in by the front door to ring when it was time to come home. When I would come home from a long day playing I’d scarf down my dinner as fast as possible and started writing of my daily adventures.
This is were the downhill fall of my writing starts:
On my birthday I got a flip phone. It didn’t have internet and came with strict instructions that it was only to be used to call my parents. I was grateful even though I would lose it constantly.
Then the internet boom that would capture my generation hit, and it hit hard. I had to have Facebook and Tumblr and I would simply die if I didn’t have an iPhone.
I stopped playing
Some of this was age, becoming a pre teen and leaving that childhood ‘nonsense’ behind because games were for little kids and I wanted to be an ‘adult’. Previous generations would spend time on the house phone, experimenting with make up, or going to the mall. Not us. We would text, poke each other on Facebook, and post our entire lives on the internet. We had everything at our fingertips and nobody thought what that would do to us.
Our circles multiplied tenfold, the world was suddenly our audience and we were just shoved into it. I stopped writing and started posting. I didn’t read, I mean why would I? Facebook counted, right?
My attention span crumbled and now information was in bite sized pieces. In my head I was fine with it, I mean now I could learn more, see more, in faster time. Life was too short to sit there for hours reading when I could just keep up with everything happening all over the world.
Our social lives sped up too quickly.
By the time people (adults) saw how it changed us, it was too late (for us at least). Now that’s not to say some parents tried to limit our time on technology, mine certainly did. Our social structure had changed, we no longer waited until school the next day to gossip, it was all real time. It filled our lives, leaving no room for reading, hobbies, or real life.
I look back at this time in my life and wonder why no one saw this coming. Maybe they did and thought well that is just progress.
Fast forward to present day, I have apps to limit the amount of time I spend on social media, my career is in E-Commerce, and I have just now realized all the time I could have spent reading or writing (my true passion) I really just spent scrolling through Facebook. It’s sad but I look at it as an opportunity to share that with others. Pleading that young kids do not make the same mistake.
I see schools limiting phone use and warning kids about this. Do they listen? I certainly didn’t as a teenager.
All I can do now is reflect and change. I am working on getting my writing process down. I’m taking walks, working out, reading. It’s hard, my attention span is terrible but I work at it every day. We need to look at how technology has changed us as writers and find that happy medium (pun intended).
What are some habits that help you with your writing?
