Starting now, I own this day.

You own this day.

Slowly integrating back into life after ten days unplugged for personal reasons. Therefore I owe people emails, videos, designs and most importantly apologies – personal and virtual. I can’t control when mental breakdowns occur, only how I handle disappointment others have in me after my absence. It doesn’t feel good to let people down but from my past experience burning out is far worse.

And so starting now, I own this day.

The Balancing Act

I wish I could make a video blog explaining everything that is happening in my life. Talking through things with feedback is how I cope with events. And yet as of recent, and due to the “sensitive nature” (others opinions, not mine [since I’m willingly open about anything]) of topics I’d be discussing, I can’t.

If I had the ability to take all of my plans/ideas/everything and break them open to the world for everyone to see – expose it all for public exhibition and discourse – I would. And I want to! That’s what my #BestLife video series is supposed to be about! But until I have the blessing of those around me to share stuff like this, or until I develop a nondescript format to share events that have happened to me real life (change names and places?) I can’t be fully open. And that feels so personally limiting.

I’ve gotta get through this. And I’ve need to figure out a balance between sharing online for my own sanity and still having a private life…

If there’s one thing that pisses me off in a friendship, it’s having “friends” who consistently never reply to text messages, or return phone calls. You know, I get that you’re busy. I get that things can be hectic and we all have stuff to deal with. But if taking thirty seconds or less out of your day to reply to someone who you supposedly care about is too much of a hassle, perhaps we weren’t really friends in the first place.

Real talk.

“Im lying in bed.” — 50k Tweets Later

Those four words, sans-apostrophe and all, were the first things I ever posted on the now massive, infamous and world-changing social network called Twitter. I sent that message via text from my silver Samsung flip phone while laying at home in bed at 2:24am on August 31st, 2007. Little did I know how much the site would influence my life over the following 4 years, 7 months and 2 days.

We all know the fabled stories of Twitter - breaking news of plane crashes, sparking political revolution in the middle east, and connecting communities across the globe like no other - but my story isn’t something of consequence, or one to be envious of. It’s just mine, and that’s why I like it.

Twitter was a really different site back in 2007. For anyone who remembers that time, they’ll probably tell you about how the front page had a live updating stream of every tweet posted on the site, scrolling in real time. If there was a lull in users online you could sometimes get a few in a row and tell your friends to check it out. Keep in mind, I was one of the first 10,000 people to register, and back then we didn’t realize the potential that the website had. We were just having fun posting stupid entries from our day, meals we were about to eat and occasionally a link to something we found funny.

I’m not quite sure when the moment was, but at some point tweeting became second nature to me. I didn’t have to think about it anymore. Instead, I just tweeted whenever I got the urge. An ultimate stream-of-consciousness, I suppose, but one that was helping me become a better wordsmith and ultimately a damn good copywriter. The fact that ordinary daily life occurrences could become entertaining nuggets of wit and wisdom really resonated with me, much in the same way writing for advertising headlines does.

After devoting one-fifth of my life to documenting it in such a way, I look at the collection of tweets not as some would see it - a wasted pile of time and energy that could have been better spent on “real” pass-times. Instead I see volumes and chapters of life being told first-person, as they unfold in real time, with no censorship or topic off limits. I dare you to find a more concise living and organic approach to the documentation of human existence than what Twitter has created.

Along with my main account, @ObviouslyBen, I’ve also had more than thirty full- and part-time Twitter accounts that I’ve created or helped manage. For example, @ItsBenspiration is my account for inspirational, motivating tweets. @LotsaNews is exactly what it sounds like, an aggregate of 30+ news RSS feeds, each automatically sourced half-hourly. And @BensNowPlaying auto-updates each time I play a song on my laptop. Trust me when I say that I can take anything and create a Twitter account for it. That being said, it seems evident that I’ve posted many more than 50,000 meager tweets. And by all accounts when you add up my combined Twitter activity I most certainly have. But the fact that this account, the one that I’ve stuck with since the beginning, has finally met the mark of so many hand-written, well crafted tweets is still something to appreciate in my book.

Here are some simple stats to tickle your brain:
• @ObviouslyBen - 50,000 tweets, 8,614 followers
• @LotsaNews - 615,196 tweets, 5,530 followers
• @ItsBenspiration - 62 tweets, 147 followers
• @BensNowPlaying - 513 tweets, 17 followers
• @[old alias] - 2,281 tweets, 249 followers
• 27 other accounts - 3,000+ total tweets, 4,000+ total followers

And after all that time, all the effort (and tedious typing,) what has Twitter really given me? Well for starters, the opportunity to visit YouTube headquarters to talk about community engagement. Oh, and a job during my sophomore year of college. And a Starbucks Gold card that I won. And sponsorship opportunities for my video blogs. And countless networking instances with some of the heavy hitters in my field. And a real, thriving community of #CoolKids who support me on the daily. And, yes, even my best friend who I met on Twitter in 2008, and for the first time IRL back in 2010. Each of these opportunities and journeys have come from being on Twitter, and I wouldn’t trade any of them for the world.

Bring on the next 50,000.

♥ -@ObviouslyBen