I’ve probably stolen from you. Definitely, in fact. You left it lying around, and I slipped it into a mental pocket. That’s what social media can do. Takes away your ability for original thought.
I’m not saying I’m a plagiarist, in the cut-and-paste manner, but rather that your thoughts, your writings, your links, your experiences all feed into mine. The wealth of information online means that there’s a subtle assimilation process going on. You read. You think. You click. Before you know it, your mind has stored a couple of points.
I wouldn’t try to pass somebody else’s work as my own- that’s just tacky. But sometimes, I’ll sit, thinking about how to kick off a post, and a word will slip into my head. Perhaps an image. It would be too dull for words to acknowledge every thought process. For example:
Well, Neen was online this morning and she was reading Tertia, who later tweeted something about sleep, and somebody else commented that they like to count winegums in bed, and then I remembered an article I’d read about sweets- not winegums, but who cares- Smarties, that’s it, and how they are using new types of food colouring because the old type is harmful, but there will be no more blue smarties, which is a pity: my younger brother loved those. Guess I’ll blog about how we shared things, or not, when I was a kid…
You see, it could get tedious. The whole point of reading your stuff, commenting, following links means an acknowledged share and interest in what we are doing. Of course, if I quote you I’ll say so. If you get paid for something I wrote, I’d get angry about it (fortunately: no likelihood of that!). Oops. I admit I trawl google images and never acknowledge the source...
But a good way of acknowledging those whose comments, words, writing and links get you going is to let others know about them. I’m not very good at remembering sources, but I’ll go with just passing it on…
Here are a couple of funny/poignant ones…
Crotchety Old Man Yells At Cars http://crotchety-old-man-yells-at-cars.blogspot.com/
I’m not saying I’m a plagiarist, in the cut-and-paste manner, but rather that your thoughts, your writings, your links, your experiences all feed into mine. The wealth of information online means that there’s a subtle assimilation process going on. You read. You think. You click. Before you know it, your mind has stored a couple of points.
I wouldn’t try to pass somebody else’s work as my own- that’s just tacky. But sometimes, I’ll sit, thinking about how to kick off a post, and a word will slip into my head. Perhaps an image. It would be too dull for words to acknowledge every thought process. For example:
Well, Neen was online this morning and she was reading Tertia, who later tweeted something about sleep, and somebody else commented that they like to count winegums in bed, and then I remembered an article I’d read about sweets- not winegums, but who cares- Smarties, that’s it, and how they are using new types of food colouring because the old type is harmful, but there will be no more blue smarties, which is a pity: my younger brother loved those. Guess I’ll blog about how we shared things, or not, when I was a kid…
You see, it could get tedious. The whole point of reading your stuff, commenting, following links means an acknowledged share and interest in what we are doing. Of course, if I quote you I’ll say so. If you get paid for something I wrote, I’d get angry about it (fortunately: no likelihood of that!). Oops. I admit I trawl google images and never acknowledge the source...
But a good way of acknowledging those whose comments, words, writing and links get you going is to let others know about them. I’m not very good at remembering sources, but I’ll go with just passing it on…
Here are a couple of funny/poignant ones…
Crotchety Old Man Yells At Cars http://crotchety-old-man-yells-at-cars.blogspot.com/
The Screaming Me-Me!!! http://madmadmargo.blogspot.com/
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