I’m reading Jeff Jarvis‘s new book Public Parts, in which he makes a pretty compelling case for ‘publicness’. He says that privacy has plenty of advocates already and that publicness also needs its advocates.

Image by Maeflower72 via Flickr

Among the benefits of being public, according to Jarvis, are that relationships and connections are formed, which is the fundamental purpose and a large part of the value created by online social networks.  Publicness  provides for collaboration and builds trust and he uses the Arab Spring movement of 2012 as a case study for publicness.

I’m not finished reading the book yet. But from what I’ve read so far, added with the talk I saw him give at Ottawa Third Tuesday a few weeks ago, I’ve decided to make the effort to become more public.  That is I’m going to try to share a little bit more about Sherrilynne, the human being, on this blog and see what value, if any, is derived.

Yes, I’ll continue to share stories about social media tools, trends and studies; researching such stories is one way I continue to learn.  But I’m going to try to broaden things out a little bit and make my blog a little more about me.

And so, today I’m revealing something personal.  Today I’m prepared to admit in public that I’ve not yet bought a single Christmas present.  And here’s the bit that hard to talk about:  I am feeling really guilty about this!

Why should anyone feel guilty about not having had time to procure tokens of affection for family and friends almost three weeks out from the festivities?  I’m not sure, but I do.  And I feel slightly panicked too.

These negative emotions I’m experiencing are making me wonder about the whole custom of gift giving at Christmastime.  Surely it should be a positive experience to spend time thinking about how much you love someone and to come up with the perfect gift to please them?

I don’t have and explanation.  What say you, dear reader?

Related posts:

• The influential people I’ve met
• Facebooks’ secret groups
• Down a new path? 

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