Trawling (but not the fish variety)

I’ve never actually gone fishing. With my inability to swim and extremely impatient nature, I see little appeal. However, I have a picture in my head as to how fishing works. Basically, you sit with an already-dead fish on a strong string, waiting for a misfortunate and curious little guy to have a nibble. Then, with great excitement and surprise, you leap up, knocking buckets and other important fishing tools to the ground, to reel in this great, impressive beast. Except, more often than not, it seems that what emerges, after much heaving and groaning, is a disappointingly small and wriggly fish that falls short of some code pertaining to required fish size. For the fish, hurrah! Being small and/or unattractive (tried to google the nature of these requirements but quickly become disinterested) saves lives in the ocean. But for the overly excited person on the other end of the line, it must all be very disheartening. I expect that the fisherperson loses interest after too many almost-but-not-quite experiences. Failure is never fun. 

My picture of fishing may be way off. I will probably never know. But if it is somewhat accurate, then fishing is pretty similar to searching the internet. This is not exactly revolutionary; the term ‘internet trawling’ is neither mine nor remotely new. But it is something that has been popping up in many of my recent conversations. As I have honed my own tastes and views, and as my interest in my university studies has slipped to a new low, I’ve found myself spending more time reading blogs, watching clips, listening to interviews and, well, trawling the internet. When I talk about something I’ve read or discovered, many friends complain how they never know what blogs to read, sites to visit and where to find these internet gems; the big fish of the web, if you will. As the internet has expanded, and the amount of information and content we are exposed to has exponentially increased, we have become completely overwhelmed. There is some conventional wisdom around the idea that with too much choice, we effectively have no choice. When everything is a top priority, or a ‘must-see’, nothing becomes a priority; instead everything sits on the same, albeit important, plane.

This blog is about sharing what I’ve discovered on the internet, and in life generally, with the addition of my own insights and thoughts. I hope that it will also open me up to what my own friends and (presumed)(somewhat arrogantly so?) readers view, read, listen to and recommend.

As some of you will know, this will be my second attempt at blogging. Over a year ago I started a blog and, while I enjoyed writing it and receiving feedback, my posts became too long and time consuming to write. And so that blog fell into the dark hole of the internet where so many aspiring blogs remain perpetually. My new-blog resolution is that I will try and keep to shorter, snappier posts, so that I can post more frequently and readers remain interested. But that starts next post.