Sometimes when I am bored, lonely or tired, I’ll browse the internet looking for thoughtful discourse and insightful essays.
I almost never find it.
There’s lots of content that turns up in the first few pages of searches- but little quality.
Analysis and discussion that goes deeper than superficial commentary and snide barbs is rare.
Seeking love, meaning, friendship or purpose online seems like a fool’s errand.
I find more friendship and meaning by chatting with neighbors on the street and people at the pool.
If I want meaningful discourse I call a friend or my mother. I’ll read books. Occasionally I’ll dive into specific user groups and forums.
When I want to better unravel the thoughts in my head, I write essays.
When I was a kid, I sometimes had to sell candy bars for fundraising. I’d go door-to-door after school trying to sell candy to people who were home at 330PM in the afternoon.
I could never sell even one full box so my mom would take it into work and sell it to her coworkers.
When I was 19 years old, my friend had to sell 4 cases of candy for his football fundraiser and asked me to join him.
I said, “No way dude. I suck at selling candy.”
But he said, “Come on, it’ll be fun. Meet me in front of the Kuhn’s Market in 15 minutes. We’ll be done in no time.”
We asked every person entering to buy a candy bar and hit up people on the way out who had change from their grocery purchases. (This was back in 1987 when people paid for groceries with cash).
He was right. We sold out in an hour and it was fun!
I learned a valuable lesson that day. Go to a place where people have money and are buying and it will be a lot easier to sell.
The same rule applies today to the Internet.
It’s a great place to look up info in Wikipedia for a general overview.
It’s a good resource for maps, recipes and how to videos.
But when I want depth, meaning and intellectual discussions, I look for it in different locations.
Because my success rate in finding these things online mirrors my success rate selling candy door to door.