Brand Recognition : 7th self

Remember when you were friends with people just because you had the same blogspot theme? Hi MadHat! Hi Kittenpie! Hi Mary P! Oh those were the polkdot olden days. Who would do that in real life? That kinda 'who wears it better'? But digitally it worked; finding a kindred in a sea of electronic loneliness.

Swimming the evolution and realignment in our digital vocabularies both blog and brand needs a field guide these days, it must grow in language to be understood. I started a blog for my Girl Friday's school this week and it is not going well. They feel a blog is a personal artifact and not a handy web-authoring tool. And, fundamentally those who show for in-person meetings and sit on parent execs are a group that do not (necessarily, as our ilk) exist digitally. But me... I feel irresponsible that a school would not be so public as to reach out with news, and information in a non-print, digital way in colour.

I hear it said a lot. They are jetson kids in a flinstone universe @school. At work I hold fast, dutifully pooh-poohing it. Desperately wanting my girl to excel with paper and pencil deeply intellectual, poverty-pure cleverness like a young girly Bob Crachit. Wise but denied. How stupid is that? #igiveup

It is what I call the Obama effect. In all the choice we had I went with the most unfancy for Miss Fancy I could. Local school. Telling myself if she could excel in the that environment she could make it anywhere. Oooh, boy was I right. You know like how fancy was Obama's elementary school in Indonesia; not much eh? And he turned out all right, eh? Well like Barack's popularity I guess opinions shift.

Am I eating my words.. not quite... but some. I have to admit that she is not putting her life 'in public' to maximum reward because even in Grade 1 I can see she'll not apply herself to the sitting and the scribbles when the world beyond the school yard is technicolor (tm).

There is a balance to be had but I am reversing on my prior snobbery about the rules of engagement. I'll admit it give me some customizations!!!

Do you remember the luxury of the shifts for your blogging selves. Those sunny days in 2006 when templates got more free, custom designers rose to the fore that you could personalize or at least up the aesthetic over the worksheet forms of our original selves. Tell me which elements of our blog speak to who you really are. I have under my tutelage at the moment two twitter feeds and four blogs. The are all very very different and none of them really include pictures of my actual self; so is that a 7th self? Don't ask me for the best feed on that, I suggest you watch this space

For example anybody recognize the image I choose for twitteer #1? Really just the p-man fetish for murderous starlets! Sure. I love an apt avatar; the succinctitude in an image as gorgeous as a 70char tweet of distinction.

And, how are you? What is your blog longevity? And, what changes with digital aging? I AM looking at you MadHat who has moved to personal, protected tweet only with the professional blog sidecar. Kittenpie how many blogs you got now? What about the incorporate identities of GGC, beauty in its own wrap. What is our reflection on the juniper brand schism of '06, jdg is in O magazine this month!??? And, you nonlinear? like a good 1992 switch to hand-crafted beer; #smallisbeautiful. No chance I'll ignore the publica grandmaster philosopher who I feel must be the source of this embed code in me, HBM. Mesdames, what can we say of digital demand and dual-diagnosis. Who are we in our digital selves and, especially at school, should the chillun's have as much or be on recess instead?

And, you know if it's all about the content tell me that too -- like the lovely and radiant L. who in her written life is excrutiatingly compact, goddamnit! (also lookin' at you Clara and earnestgirl)

Will you blog forever? Not me -- at some point, soon, I will need to write some newsletters and leave it to the writers, I expect.