I just read a book by Glenn Reynolds, "The Social Media Upheaveal". He says that we are deep reading less, and learning from headlines more. He also says that many of us share on social media articles that we have not read, more so share by the head line.

I think it's important to write down our thoughts, so that we know where we stand on the issues of our time. My father used to say that you have to know where you stand, so you don't fall for anything. So, today, the best way to be more educated than the masses is to read more than the headline. Then write down our own thoughts.

Writing also helps those who come after us to see the person we were. It doesn't matter if it is a journal, a newsletter, a blog, or a spiral notebook. Sometimes it can speak to people here today, as well.

Like I just wrote a newsletter and shared it on LinkedIn, and it got many views. One person made a comment that what I said in the newsletter was an answer to prayer. To be honest, I didn't think I said anything profound. But we are all at different levels in life, and sharing helps each other it through life.

The thing about writing and reading blogs, is that you can connect the dots between thoughts and ideas. Although my newsletter is my favorite creative outlet, my blog is where I share thoughts that link it with the thoughts of others. A practice that is uncommon today.

For example, in the Art community I like to follow people who are successful doing the uncommon thing. Like it is said to be successful you have to have your own website or blog, with a custom domain name, and I have found this to be untrue. I also have seen several bloggers over the years who have moved back and forthe from having their own platform, to blogging on a community provider, just like I'm doing here with ipernity.

The big guy, known as "The Blogfather" is doing just that here. And an established journalist and Deacon I know does the same here. A very successful Artist does that here. Finally, we can't forget about the Blogger community, one example here. And the Tumblr community, here. You will notice that all of these do not have their own custom domain name, though one may be used to forward to it.

Some people say that podcasts are the new blog. But I say that more people are moving away from social media and migrating (back) to the open web with some sort of blogging. Just like it has been said that email is dead, but I would bet more people read email than social media.

All of this to say that the next step for my transition to ipernity is to forward my domain name - www.ipernity.frankjcasella.com - here (direct to the blog is fjc.frankjcasella.com), becuase this is becoming more and more the place where I develop my thoughts and ideas with pictures and words.

And I'm proud to do it!


Thanks for reading.

Frank J Casella
www.frankjcasella.ipernity.com