My previous confessions have focused on my being a collector, which starts with collecting and saving stuff. It serves the psychological purpose of avoiding the actual project, while mulling it over, organizing, and general wool-gathering.
Proliferation is a bit different. It is an extension of collecting, which then moves into making a lot of variations of those collected items. It involves very little discarding of material. My favorite categories in the past when I was employed were often to-do lists, action plans and jotted-and-saved ideas. After my retirement in 2002, some health issues intervened. I quickly went to very little organizing or planning. It was no longer necessary. I could pay attention to my own needs and be more creative at the same time. I loved being involved with the internet, with the magic of the web.
In 2005 I went "back to work" -- as a volunteer, a blogger with two sites on Blogspot. And the proliferation began in earnest. I started using Internet Explorer as my browser, discovered Mozilla Firefox which then became too unwieldy for blogging. Now I have switched to Google Chrome, which turns out to be a big improvement over Firefox.
Over the years I wrote entries at a number of blogs that were communities of progressives, Daily Kos and TPM Cafe, for example. And I started more of my own blog sites, as well. I was invited to be a regular contribute to a couple of blogs. I was invited to do book reviews. I did this for several years. Then the administration changed, and I no longer had an adversary. After President Bush left office, the blogosphere and progressive politics had changed and I had changed.
Despite organizing, making plans, and scheduling, it eventually became too much. The readership at my regular blogs dropped. I was no longer doing any book reviews. And I was now involved with social networks. My writing had suffered; the job was too big to handle, and I asked myself for what was I working?
My proliferation has had to change. I stopped contributing to other progressive communities. Shorter and more frequent posts are now the norm, and my long and link-filled posts that did not fit that model are now infrequent. I am active on Twitter and Facebook. I post original material at a few sites which then auto post to a number of my other sites. I am micro-blogging, and I will be writing a book review by the end of the month.
"In recovery," my work is leaner and meaner. I have avoided proliferation on social media. My readership is up and I am less "driven." I am trying to get back to a routine that embodies what I always loved about the blogosphere, and one that utilizes my strengths. The themes of my day at the computer are consolidate, delete, clean, clear and organize downward.
It seems to be working better, for the time being, at least.
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