Essential Prose

When people learn that I came to Thailand on my own, started doing independent work, and figured out how to support myself and do stuff I love, they often think it’s pretty wonderful. Reactions range from “Cool, me too!” to “I wish I could” to “Wow, what’s it like?” But for all the people who are completely supportive, there are plenty of people who just don’t get it. People who think I came to Thailand to escape “real life,” that I’m just roaming aimlessly through Southeast Asia, or that I’m not being realistic. They’re waiting for me to get a real job, to get started on real life, and to stop thinking life’s so damn amazing.

There’s a lot of talk these days around the internet about the protests in Iran being some sort of “Twitter revolution.” And true, it has been fascinating to watch a movement unfold with real-time updates, vibrant multimedia coverage, and exciting new channels of communication. Twitter has indeed been an excellent tool for unclogging the information pipes and spreading news updates from the ground, despite government blocking of many networks. And yes, Twitter has also been used for some aspects of protest organization in Tehran. Twitter got a big chunk of the international community talking (or tweeting?) about the current events in Iran, watching YouTube videos of protests, and sharing photos of rallies and violence on Flickr. So we can agree that Twitter and other social media have been very useful for…

I’m sure you’ve heard that refrain, or some version of it, many times before. I think it’s extremely important to remind ourselves of this often, as it’s often easy (though tedious) to spend time fiddling with new social networking services or dithering about the purchase of this gadget or that gadget. Actually doing something cool with these things takes a lot more brain power — and risk.