What’s Your Blog About?
Typically I’m a negative person. It’s easy for me to notice the negative things in life, the negative things people and the negative things in myself. It’s hard for me to not want to call people out on things that I believe are wrong especially in this blogging age where everyone has a soapbox. Everyone can blast anyone they want and I can too. In fact I almost did yesterday. I almost wrote a post about a Twitter that was flying around and everyone was praising…. and it was wrong. It was a slam on people in a “Christian light” and I completely disagreed with it. And I wanted to blast it. I wanted to hop on here and give “my side”. But I didn’t. Mostly because Kristin wouldn’t let me, but she was right.
I started thinking about it more. I started thinking about what I wanted this blog to represent. I started thinking about the way that I wanted my blog to be “categorized” as. Did I want it to be a place where all I did was prove to people how right I was? How awesome I was because I disagreed with other Christians? How I could sit in my office and spout off anything “controversial” and hope that someone popular would ‘Re-Tweet’ me or something? Or did I want my blog to be something that you could come to and, God forbid, actually enjoy? Something positive? Something that is there to encourage people, lift people up and actually edify?
Remember when we started Positive Post Tuesday? That seemed cool. There’s still some folks doing that and I love it. I wish there could be more of that. That started because I was tired of negative garbage that fills up Christian blogs where all we want to do is tear down people so we look awesome, or like we know more than someone else. Is anyone else tired of that crap?
So, anyway, all that to say, I hope this blog is something that, if nothing else, represents positivity. Is that a word Positivity? And I’d like that for my life too. Years from now when our grandkids are making fun of us for “blogging” I want a positive spirit to still be something that I am associated with. Now, does that mean that there won’t be times that I disagree with something? No. Does that mean that every post that I write on here will be flowery and shallow? I hope not. But I think you can address things that you might disagree with in a positive way. And I hope to be able to do that.
So here’s my question to you. What’s your blog about? What do you want it to be about. Let’s say there’s a “Legacy” that your online life can leave. What do you want it to be?
Ready? Go.
Be Nice
In an ongoing attempt to make this whole interweb a more ‘positive’ place, today I decided to create a little something called ‘Be Nice’. Yep. That’s it. Most of you have noticed that on the end of my Tweets and at the end of my posts I have started adding a plus sign (+) to them. Some of you have caught on and are joining in the fun and some of you aren’t. Here’s the deal. I’d like for this to become something that becomes the ‘norm’ in my little corner of blogland. In the same vein as ‘Positive Post Tuesday’ I’d like for this to become something that’s bigger than me or this blog.
Because it’s such a simple exercise, I’m going to keep bugging you guys about it until it becomes more and more of a ‘thing’. I’ve had a lot of people asking me what the deal with the plus sign is and in case you missed it before, here’s how it works:
If you write something positive, put a plus sign (+) at the end of it. If you write something negative have the guts to put a minus sign (-). Now I’ve seen a handful of people participating in the ‘positive’ side of things but I’ve still seen plenty of negative Tweets and posts, and we all all too scared to admit that we are being negative. Funny how that works huh? Simple enough rules right?
Now, sure there’s going to be things that you say that aren’t positive or negative in nature, but that’s what makes this exercise so cool. It’s at least making you think. I’m typically a pretty negative person and with Twitter and blogging it’s become increasingly easy to send out that negativity to the world, but I think it’s time to switch things up.
So here’s what we are going to do. If you’re reading this and have a blog, write a post about ‘Be Nice’. Steal the image above and write in your own words what the idea behind this is. Post it on your Facebook, Twitter it. You can even put it on your Myspace if anyone still uses that.
Now, this isn’t some way for me to get more traffic or get people talking about me. In fact, if you don’t want to mention my name or link here, then don’t, but I’d really like to see the idea of putting a + or – at the end of everything spread like crazy. Let’s make the internet a whole lot more +, shall we? Remember, it’s not that hard to ‘be nice’.
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