Owning 2013

It’s resolution time, isn’t it. That time of the year where, because of what is essentially an arbitrary turning of calendar pages we decide that this is the moment we’re all going to say “I’m going to do this/not do this/do this differently.”

I get it – I always love a fresh set of downs and the opportunities to start fresh with some new idea at the beginning of a defined time period. But I’m not really a big resolution guy, mostly because I forget to write them down and then it’s not that I lose my momentum but I just forget about them.

One change that I’m going to make in 2013, though, is own more of my online activity. I’m increasingly frustrated by the plethora of networks on the web (and my phone) that don’t allow me to A) Export my activity into some sort of globally useful format and B) That don’t include a “Share on WordPress” feature, something that’s missing from almost every social network out there right now.

I want this site to be the hub of *everything* I do online. It should not only be the home of the short, medium or long-form material I write (aside from that which I write for Voce Nation) that then gets distributed elsewhere but also the repository for my activity elsewhere. But right now there’s such a strong movement by most every social company to be the one place people spend their online time that I’m increasingly irked by the speed-bumps I run into regularly.

So what does all this look like in terms of day to day execution? The initial direction I’m headed in is this:

1. I’m kind of done with GetGlue and other activity check-in apps, at least for the time being. If I’m watching a movie I’ll post about it here and if I’m listening to some good music I’ll post about it here, likely with a trailer or video from said movie or album.
2. I’ll likely get more into Instagram, which I’ve taken a bit of a break from recently, but I’ll link it up with my Foursquare account so I can check in using the Photo Map. Then instead of sharing on Twitter or elsewhere I’ll post the photo here on CT.WP with a note about where I am and why I’m there.
3. My activity on those other social networks will likely consist of 1) Distribution of links to posts here and on VN and 2) Engagement with other people. So I’ll still have Twitter conversations, I’ll share stuff on Google+ and so on. But I’m not going to be publishing my own original stuff to those networks directly.

All this should add up to this site being a lot more consistently active in 2013 than it has been. It also means it’s going to be even more of a hodgepodge of topics than it has been, with my bouncing from media analysis to movie trailers to rants about the Cubs and so on.

That’s the plan. I think it’s incredibly important – and getting more so with each passing day – that publishers own their material and these moves are guided in large part by that philosophy. I want to be able to download and own what I’ve done regardless of anything else and WordPress allows me to do that while many other platforms don’t.

Here’s to 2013.