There's a structural conundrum to confront... this will not be one facet of a multi-pronged social media campaign. I did not sign up for the distraction of joining Facebook or promoting MBE via Twitter. Rather, I faced a triple zero-sum choice—investing time in Facebook, Twitter, or this blog—and I chose MBE. I am not so naïve as to expect that most people will find MBE unless it is through Facebook or Twitter networks of others. Thus its “success," measured in readers, must be parasitic on social networks that I shun and fear.
From the outset, I was far from clear about the future of this blogging experiment. It truly was experimental, with a few “what if” ruminations:
What if I liked having a “first draft” outlet to think out loud about bigger projects?
What if I could spoon out and centralize links to otherwise far-flung publications—such as this review of a book on the Christian left that I just published! —and/or repost earlier articles relevant to emergent issues—such as this essay on Björk for the occasion of her recent album release.
Since I try at once to work as a scholar across multiple disciplines, contribute in the ballpark of “public intellectual,” write about music, create music in my own right (with songs that no one will hear if I don’t circulate them)—plus be a teacher and/or friend to people who care about all this—what if a blog could gather all this in one place?
What if this resulted less in a train wreck and more in clarity about how it fits together?
What if friends, family, and colleagues found MBE sufficiently worthwhile that the good energies released into the world outweighed the downsides: lost opportunity costs and a specter of unleashing more words into a world that is already a flood of words. Clearly we need less distraction and more quality reflection—what if MBE could help more than hurt on those fronts?
It seemed totally unclear if these “what ifs” would prove true—or, if so, whether they would be mutually consistent. This was part and parcel of the experiment.
Where Do We Go From Here?
When I last reported, I had two ideas to keep MBE moving. I’ve written a couple of Christmas songs that deserve to be known more widely. (I hate how Christmas songs should put forward a robust sense of peacemaking in the face of empire, but hardly ever do; my songs help fill the gap.) I had hoped by now to post a video of the more important of these, then follow-up with the other one. But I was unhappy with how the recording turned out. Would releasing a flawed version have been better than nothing? My perfectionism won out.
I also intended to write a reflection similar to this one—but addressed not solely to the people who blunder here by accident, but emailed to a wider group of friends in the hope of shifting into a higher gear. However, I wanted to do that after building more momentum. So, what now?—since all I've accomplished lately is getting stuck and losing momentum.
Our Structural Conundrum
There is a structural conundrum to confront. I was clear from the moment I launched MBE—and I have not wavered—that this cannot be one facet of a multi-pronged social media campaign. Emphatically, I did not sign up for the distraction of joining Facebook or promoting MBE via Twitter. Rather, I had a triple zero-sum choice—invest time in Facebook, Twitter, or writing this blog—and I chose MBE.
I am not so naïve as to expect that many people will find MBE, unless it is through Facebook and Twitter networks of others who find their way here. So the “success” of the blog, at least if measured in readers, is fundamentally parasitic on the social networks that I shun and fear. Also, feedback loops might be odd, since if anyone reposts from this blog via Facebook, I might never find out.
This feels odd, but maybe no worse than living in this strange world (where the value of ideas is ruled by the logic of counting Twitter followers) while not articulating my thoughts here at all. Either way I seem doomed to fail in terms of this brave new world. I vacillate between being stubbornly proud of that or too despairing to do anything about it.
Some friends whom I imagine as part of my best-case scenarios consider my resistance to Facebook perverse. That could reduce their sympathy for my endeavor. Perhaps in a future post I will say more about why I am adamant about my zero-sum choices—why engaging social media is not a road I am willing to travel so that, by extension, there is no remedy for my hypocritical parasitism. Lately I have been thinking with students about social media —see this and this—and it has made me more stubborn than ever, while also giving me an impression that my long-running hesitations may be gaining traction.
Insofar as Facebook/Twitter have definitively “won” our culture, and insofar as this implies that MBE has little value without trending on their platforms, it might turn out that this experiment will be a huge waste of time.
However, if I were to embrace their victory and join their war of all against all for attention, I’m pretty sure I would end up as a casualty in their Hunger Games anyway.
If I decided to stop working on MBE, would that be any better? Why not write (even for myself alone) and see what happens? These are not simply rhetorical questions, and so I conclude this discussion of MBE’s future with them hanging.
Meanwhile, let’s be clear. Facebook and Twitter are not going to push MBE to you. Either you'll need to follow this blog yourself (which sends posts to your email) or bookmark it and visit. By extension, few of your twitter followers or facebook friend are likely to notice anything on MBE unless you share it. Parasitic as this may be, these are the real world conditions under which MBE will either find readers or not.