I have always considered myself a bit of an extrovert. Always somewhat easy dealing with social situations, always ongoing, and somewhat easy to make friends and such. You know, always around people, with the cool kids, gatherings, events, whatever, always around. This is why, doing the internet thing came, again, somewhat “easy” and super-interesting, an internet extrovert. Or is it a social butterfly? In any case, it all started with the usual suspects, in my case, LatinChat, ICQ, MSN Messenger, later MySpace, and Facebook. The rest, as they say, it’s history. I even ended up blogging and all!

I cannot say I have been around for a long time because clearly there are people much older than me that are still doing the internet thing. Whether they’re still on Twitter, blogging, chatting, the Instagrams, etcetera. We are internet people, playable characters. We do the social media game, the blogging, the chats, all of it. But at some point, it gets exhausting, in many ways, it becomes too much. Too much information, too many social issues, too much to keep track of…

Having a “real” life, can be tough, taxing, and especially if you’ve got a family, kids. And, if we are not careful, our “internet life” can get in the way. I would love to say I have a perfect balance, but that’d be such a majestic bullshit thing to say. It’s too much, again, it becomes exhausting. Keeping with your family, your non-internet friends (if I still have those), then your online friends, on 5 different chats and on 5 different social platforms. It’s hard to keep up!

Lately, I’ve been having this meh feeling about blogging like I don’t feel the need of writing something and sharing it. However, I think there’s more to it than just my blogging, I think is the whole internet thing. I feel like I devote too much of my time to it. To the point that if I were to quit social media and all, I wouldn’t know what to do with my time, or me. That is a very sad and scary feeling if you think about it.

The idea of becoming an NPC, does sounds like a beautiful idea. Little to no social media presence, journaling, and writing for me and me alone and not share a thing. But there’s always the need to do so like blogging is a thing I love to do or sharing my pictures. Like, what is the point of taking a picture or writing something if not to share it?

If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

My feeling is that every blogger/online social person goes through this every once in a while. Thus, I presume, it goes away.

Right?

Does it?

Take a social retreat of sorts?

Like a great philosopher once said,

Fuck it all! fuck this world!
Fuck everything that you stand for!
Don't belong! don't exist!
Don't give a shit!
Don't ever judge me!

— Surfacing

😅

In all seriousness, I'm certain that is possible, leaving it all behind, I have seen it. Stepping away and, quietly sipping a drink in the back of the room while everyone else does their thing.

I am not certain, what I should do and focus on at the moment. I am not convinced, I truly have it in me to step away and have no social presence at all, a noninternet person. Not only that, but I am not sure whether I am the internet extrovert/ social butterfly I used to be, even in real life, in fact, as I’ve grown older.

Maybe that’s it, I’m just getting old and grumpy.

René Pérez Joglar, also known as Residente, Puerto Rican rapper, songwriter, activist, some may say philanthropist. One of the major exponents of the urban-music genre, in PR and around the world, released his new single, This is not America, featuring Ibeyi.

This song, in many ways, touches close to my heart. The song has a very strong statement and criticisms as many of his songs do. The lyrics are punchlines are strong and powerful, the bit it's on point, with the use of heavy drums, Ibeyi's voice in the chorus,  I never get bored of listening to it.

worth listening to and watching the video.

Many lines on this song resonate with me, but my favorite,

(translated for your convenience 😉)

America is not just the USA, papá
This is from Tierra del Fuego to Canada
You need to be very dumb, very hollow,
is like saying that Africa is just Morocco
These scoundrels forgot that the calendar they use, the Mayans invented it

Also, just in case, Tierra del Fuego, or "Land of Fire"  is an archipelago at South America’s southernmost tip, shared by Chile and Argentina.

America is not the United States, it is the United States of America.

Everything has such a short span these days. For example, I miss the times that I would listen to the same album, sometimes on repeat and on purpose, for weeks, perhaps months. Now there’s so much out there and so easily — and readily — accessible that the album, I loved and enjoyed today, might be forgotten or lost in the queue in a week or so.

On the other hand, though, having choice and again, easily and readily accessible, it’s also kind of cool. It’s just that sometimes it becomes a little too overwhelming.

This is great! I guess the same argument can be made for digital journaling, a.k.a. blogging, which doesn't even has to be 208 characters or more.