Technology in Context

Well, not quite but it has been a long time since I published here. June 2023 to be precise. I was never a prolific blogger, like some of my peers, but I averaged ~4 posts a year. This blog became increasingly quiet from 2022 onwards.

There’s no intriguing reason for my silence. There are several reasons that contributed to it but no single big juicy reason. This blog was focused on education and learning technology topics as that was the work I did.

I changed jobs in 2022 and was no longer ‘at the coal face’. I increasingly felt uncomfortable blogging. As an employee of an organisation that represented a membership, I always worried (similarly with social media) that anything I published would be viewed as representing the organisation, rather than myself. I often didn’t post because I didn’t want to cause a drama because I posted something people didn’t like. To be clear, no one told me I couldn’t. I decided not to blog because I didn’t feel it was worth the risk, however small.

At the end of a working day, I also didn’t feel like sitting at the computer to blog. My posts are primarily a stream of my consciousness. I didn’t want to censor myself or spend hours checking for anything that might be contentious or misinterpreted.

My social media has been similarly quiet. After the takeover of X, I left the platform and my social media activity dropped too. I continue to lurk but I rarely post anything these days. It was not a conscious decision, I just found fewer reasons to post and increasing decreasing engagement as my peers left platforms too. Perhaps I was more addicted to the dopamine than I realised.

It’s been about two years since I posted. Again, not deliberate just the result of being very busy and having gone through a lot of personal and professional challenges. I could tell you some stories, that’s for sure. As a result, my energy has been spent on self-care and recovery.

You will note, the name of my blog has changed to ‘technology in context’. Given my use of technology has changed from an education to not-for-profit context, the name felt appropriate to cover my former and current professional contexts.

My anxiety around posting has not changed at my new organisation. I would not, for example, post blogs on animal welfare. Firstly, because I do not have enough expertise to do so and secondly, because that would pose a risk to the organisation. If my posts were inaccurate or upsetting to members, that could be damaging to the organisation. I feel comfortable talking about technology, services, operations etc. in my new organisation because its unlikely any of our members will take exception to my opinions on it.

It’s not that I wasn’t concerned about that when I worked in education, it just always felt safer.

There are, of course, similarities between education and not-for-profits. My interactions with technology will be different and my thoughts on it will be formed in a different context.

I have a blog in progress which I will try to publish soon. Plus, we have a lot of interesting digital plans afoot that I could share.

This is by no means a promise to blog more often. It is a first effort, on my part, to get back in the habit.