Why do we blog, twitter, and otherwise syndicate our thoughts?

When you really step back to look at it, "thought syndication" is an interesting phenomenon.  It is the ultimate catharsis of a hidden human psychosis.  The fear of being forgotten.  

Really.  Why would we want to twitter every moment or blog our deepest feelings (or the antithesis of such)?  We want the world to know who we are and what we contribute to the shared human experience.  Isn't that the goal of every human?  To not be insignificant?  To make a meaningful contribution to the mortal coil we find ourselves locked in.

Or is that just people like me?  Does the "blogosphere" or the "tweets" of today represent the true heartbeat of the world?  Or does it simply represent a slightly-narcissistic, type-A, highly opinionated, extremely small group of people who have figured out how to harness an ever growing array of "publishing tools" for their ideas?  Some of us (myself completely included) have figured out how to have an idea pop into our head and have it echo from our brain to Twitter, to our Blog, to our Social Networking profile pages.  

Increasingly, I am beginning to think that our deepest fears are true.  We are alone.  We are simply speaking into the void.  Without action, all of this syndication is meaningless.  Social Network, Web 2.0, whatever buzz word you want to call it today needs to evolve and it needs to become real.

Don't Let Yourself Off The Hook!

Personal Responsibility

Lets just drink that concept in for a moment....what does it mean to you?  I think it would be safe to say that it means different things to different people.   However the general gist of the concept is "The ability to accept the consequences and rewards of one's actions.  The ownership of one's ideas and actions."

People who accept personal responsibility are less likely to give up easily, complete objectives thoroughly, and generally are considered to be the backbone of civilized society.  These people accept the challenges of innovation and reap the rewards of the risks associated with those same challenges.  These people are fully alive, and all you need to do is see the thousands of successful business and political folks as evidence.  Nearly all of them exhibit personal responsibility for their actions (with the exception of those in Hollywood or Network News, where good things happen to bad people all the time). 

The consequence of not accepting personal responsibility is akin to death.  Allowing yourself to get off the hook for your own actions compromises the very spirit that keeps your heart pumping.  And you regress.  You move into a childlike state of denial and acting out against those who exhibit personal responsibility.  People like this generally quit at the first sign of trouble, duplicitously align their actions with many opposing forces, and typically are frustrated with their inability to advance their cause.  Their whole life could change in an instant if they simply had the inclination to own what they create (in any way). 

This self-perpetuating spiral is a strong drug.  The ability to compromise one's spirit affords a malaise that holds people in it's grip for their entire life in some cases.  Their only hope is the very people they rail against.  Those who accept the responsibility to bring them back to reality; back to a life in which every breath is a reaffirmation of their ability to move forward and advance themselves as human beings.  Because in the end, thats all we have.  The ability to connect and expand one's thoughts and actions for posterity.