“Long live the walls we crashed through…how the kingdom lights shined just for me and you…I was screaming long live all the magic we made…and bring on all the pretenders…one day we will be remembered”
--Taylor Swift
Our lives are filled with the want to be remembered. We strive every single day to become someone that will be remembered. Down the road, our actions will live through those who come after us. Without a doubt this is true, and it’s without a doubt that we have complete control over this. It’s our reputation that lives after us, not necessarily an one particular action we did or word we spoke, but it’s our reputations and how we handled ourselves that define our lives. Before the digital age, people struggled to live the right life and be good to those around us. Criticism was around every corner.
Now, during the digital age, our lives have expanded onto the World Wide Web. Our personal lives, once masked by the curtains and blinds, are now on display on our facebook pages and twitter accounts. It’s important to note that even our beliefs and values are under scrutiny from our friends, family, and coworkers. Our personalities and beliefs and values are defined by what we post on these sites. With the exception of people close to us, most individuals don’t know us, so when we post something, it’s a window into us. Every comment, every picture posted is and will always be linked to us through cyberspace; there’s no erasing it. Once we post our feelings on the last football game or awards show, it’s there forever. So, it would stand to reason that it’s our duty to present ourselves in the best possible light, no?
It is my belief that the most important values are creativity, integrity, and adventure.
Creativity is the backbone structure of the fiber of our beings. Integrity is the moral center of that fiber. And adventure is the glue that connects the fibers to the center.
As a natural being of creativity, I can’t imagine a world without being able to freely express myself in whatever means I choose. With a background in performing arts, I realized during my studies that art is about freeing yourself. By freeing myself through art, I was able to come to terms with myself and the world around me. Despite my change in academic interests, creativity is everywhere. Through social media tools and digital media, creativity is able to flourish in a new and different way than ever before. The stimuli that feeds our minds on a daily basis can also feed our online reputation and presence. For example, an actor on stage is portraying Hamlet, a very diverse character struggling to make decisions; in many ways, the actor himself is the same way. The actor must make creative decisions in his rehearsal of the character. How he chooses to be creative with the text is his creative choice. If he succeeds, he’s seen as a great actor with unlimited abilities; if he fails, well, he has failed himself and his company. It’s the same with an individual’s online reputation. If a person posts depressing or dark content, that person will be seen as a nobody. What you post defines who you are. Especially to those you don’t know. As with the actor, your posts and content you share can be creative, sharing a part of who you are as a person.
As a person, we all have some level of integrity. Integrity is perhaps the most important value of online presence. Our integrity stems from our ability or lack of ability to the truth. The truth of ourselves and everyone around us is portrayed in every single post, comment, or picture uploaded online. I always think of it this way, if we don’t want our mothers to see it, then we shouldn’t. There is so much truth in this short statement. From a child, the value of integrity was instilled within us to be the most important value one could possess. We were also taught to trust people with this value. As the digital age barrels on, these values go right on with it. More and more communication is done through online content (through Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc) and just like telling our best friends the secret of a lifetime, we have to be honest to the web. There are eyes and ears everywhere, as they say.
As these two values, creativity and integrity, come together, we have adventure. Life is all about adventure. We must take chances and risks. Without adventure, we lose a sense of ourselves. Sometimes people will lose the adventure in their lives, and in essence, a part of themselves as well. Recently, I took a risk of moving to Nashville, TN, an adventure you could say. There have been no regrets upon this decision and I do not foresee there will be any. Yes, however, there may be bumps in the road; but bumps always come with an adventure. There’s always a price to pay with taking an adventure, but in no way should we regret them. Our adventures should inform our integrity and power our creativity.
By feeding off each other, these three values form the basis of my life up to this point. Without taking an adventure (a risk), my integrity would not have been called into question and thus would not have powered my creativity. Every single day I monitor the world around me and my reactions to it. In turn, my online presence is kept in check; my online reputation mirrors my real life. I make sure that what I post and tweet about is something I would want my mother to see. I make sure the content is relevant to my life and important to the values I believe in.
Job Title(s) being monitored: Artist Manager, music intern
Name(s) being monitored: Jason Scott
3 Websites being monitored: Billboardbiz, Roughtstock, Country Standard Time
Recommend Listening:
No comments:
Post a Comment