(Towards a System for) Things For You To Read That I Haven’t Written Myself / Link Exhaust
Since embarking on what appears to be a more permanent Twitter exodus (a brief attempt at a return this weekend returned me not to a connected utopian solution to problems I never had to begin with but rather to all of the self-inflicted anxieties and faults my sabbatical had sought to ameliorate in the first place) than I had first envisioned, I’ve struggled to come up with an effective new system for the sharing and curation of digital inputs.
While I wrote previously about switching mostly to print and paid subscriptions, I still subscribe to a number of newsletters and do enjoy reading intriguing things when I stumble across them; since getting rid of Instapaper and Pocket a couple of years ago and switching to the paid ($11.00 / year), “social bookmarking for introverts” Pinboard service, Pinboard has become both my private online archive of both those intriguing stumbled-upons and paid subscriptions as well as an inbox of unprocessed digital inputs. Once processed, however, those inputs languished in the private section of Pinboard and had no means of release – beyond deletion – or utility for anyone but myself.
The release into wider utility: the aforementioned “social”(ish): my public Pinboard page is now the new home of my “link exhaust”; in other words, a vehicle for the sharing of accumulated links (that I don’t particularly have an urge to write about) via a public archive devoid of anxiety-ridden social function which can be added to with a click and, if not completely in tune with bringing more of my online existence within the walls of this little garden, then at least a pleasant enough harmonization.
To be sure, there are more than a few kinks to be worked out in this inchoate system (for instance, I’m not yet sure of how I’ll avoid an overflowing archive (maybe limit it and swap things out public/private?) nor do I feel I’ve nailed the best integration with this site), but for now, this is the best way I’ve found to give myself and the four or five of you who read these a better zuihitsu / notebook experience as I press ahead with, to borrow from Tom Waits, whatever the hell I’m building in here.
(TW)
