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It’s Poewar’s John Hewitt‘s fault again (I promise I am not brown nosing him or nuthin’). He introduced me to Yvonne Russell through his March Madness thing, which you should what it is by now as I’ve mentioned it too many times during this birthday celebration. Now you can see why I credit John with renewing my interest in blogging. A gal gets tired after eight years, y’know?
Enough about him! This should be about Yvonne. Her blog entries always spark wonderful discussions. Writers can’t complain about loneliness when they have blogs like hers for their water cooler visits. I know I do.
The Power of Story in the Digital Age
What is your story? Your personal story? Your business story?
Now that we have push button publishing, our personal and business stories are no longer confined to oral storytelling, wonderful though that medium is – or to faded photos in a box. We have the means to gather and share those stories – the stories of our families, our hopes, our businesses and our everyday lives. They can be captured like time capsules… a web of ever changing snapshots preserved forever.
They spin around the ethernet, ready to be plucked off the virtual shelf by an interested passerby or a friend. It’s a pretty empowering thought that our stories and the stories of others in this digital age are ready and waiting like a virtual treasure chest of event markers, memories and perspectives for our children or grandchildren and beyond.
We can add color, nuances and an extra dimension of connectivity through words – spoken and written. We can add photos, video, audio and lifestreams. In an inspiring video, Jonathan Harris talks of looking up at the night sky and remembering the ancient Greek stories of the constellations. He ponders what the constellations would look like if we could remake our own modern day versions today. And what would their stories be?
Harris is working on two exciting projects. We Feel Fine maps the world’s emotions. Every day computers scan up to 20 000 sentences using the word “feel”. Never mind six degrees of separation. This is a sense of one to one connectivity. Universe maps world events and people – again a very powerful demonstration of the interactivity and essence of story. Everyone has a story and everyone’s story impacts on the world’s storyweb.
I’m excited to see what the future holds in providing new ways to share our personal and business stories. Recently, while travelling in outback Australia, I met a bookseller who had clients all around the world thanks to the wonders of the internet. She not only had clients, but these clients had become friends. She remarked “Aren’t we lucky to be living at a time like this?” I readily agreed.
About the Author: Yvonne Russell is a freelance writer, editor and professional blogger.
I count my blessings every day, every moment I sign on to the internet and make those connections with people from all over.
Yes, we’re lucky to be living in the digital age. For a deaf person, the internet levels the playing ground —except when there’s inaccessible videos, podcasts, radio shows, etc.
I only have to look at my kids to see how different their lives are compared to mine when growing up deaf/hard of hearing. I had to wait until my father arrived home to call a boyfriend– my kids can text away!
Karen Putz / DeafMom’s last blog post… Are You Living Your Dream Life?
Yvonne, yes, we are lucky indeed. I also believe that the more we write, and share, and swap photos of the ordinary places we live, the more our own stories become vivid, colourful, vital.
Stories we enjoy living in. Stories that we start to shape and influence by the words that we write, create, and share.
Joanna
Joanna Young’s last blog post… Are You Clear On Your Blogging Purpose?
Stories are particularly useful in a business context, as they can keep a presentation engaging. Instead of providing facts and figures, tell the story of how those facts and figures came to be. What changed? Who caused the change?
The ability to share those stories over a distance to remote viewers and listeners now saves us dollars and makes sense!
Wow, thank you for the nice words. Blogging Madness was definitely an interesting project. It wasn’t easy, but it was worthwhile. I certainly made a few friends because of it. I’m glad other people did too.
John Hewitt’s last blog post… 5 Ways Writers Can Get Their Lives Back
@ Karen P – The digital age certainly offers us more and more options with communication.
@ Joanna – Every time we communicate we are sharing part of our story – a personal story or business story. As you say, visuals and sharing enrich the story.
@ Elisa – I’ve become increasingly more interested in the use of stories in the business context. It’s so much more engaging than facts and figures, as you say, and offers a sense of connectivity.
@ John – You certainly started something with Blogging Madness. Like Meryl, I discovered new bloggers and blogs as well.
I agree with Yvonne, whilst the internet has also brought us some negative things it has certainly opened up our lives, made research so much easier, and getting advice quicker. It can also connect one to a world apart from one’s own as you experienced.
As a writer I have worked on book projects over the net without ever seeing the editor or publisher.
I agree that we should tell the story of our businesses in a more personal way.
Donna’s last blog post… Summer Wines