Can't seem to immunise myself against memes

Ages ago, my Melbourne mate Pete Aldin of the Great Circle and Freaked-Out Fathers "tagged" me.

The "in thing" these days in the blogging world are tags or memes.

Some bright spark will come up with an infectious idea for everyone to give their personal opinion/experience of.  The starter author writes their own piece, then nominates a number of mates to pick up the thread/tag.  It's a little like the old games of chasey/tag/tiggy/"it" that we all played in the school ground.  Once named, you are "it" until you can write your story and shift the tag onto someone else. 

These memes spiral (viral) around blog communities like a dose of the Black Plague through medieval London!

When I receive a tag, it usually leaves me with a sense of dread and horror, and the mental conversation that snottily starts with "Oh Great!  When I am ever going to find time to do that?  Thanks PAL!"   (Ungrateful tart, aren't I?)

Unfortunately my sticky-beaky curiosity, and eternal desire to be "in" anything, gets the better of me.  So, I go and read a few other tagged responses, and next thing I know my mental conversation has meandered off into ... "Gee, that does sound interesting, I wonder what I'd say IF I was to respond!" 

See?  It just gets you suckered in and infected.  The only cure is to write and shed the burden elsewhere!

So having mentioned Pete Aldin at the beginning of this post, I'd better tell you that at last I'm about to get around to picking up the ball and running with Pete's meme!   And yes Pete, I did curse you!  But yours  was definitely one of the most constructive memes that have been tossed my way!

You'll hear more in my next post!

Comments

[Pete Aldin]

Actually, I'm with you. In July I was tagged with no less than THREE of the flippin' things! On top of that I was invited to join the writing team on another blog (that'd make 6 that I'm writing on if I'd yes), got asked to do several things on Facebook .... Blah!

A year ago, I'd have reveled in the way this validated me. Now I'm kind of over it all and just want to get back to the core of writing and building community online.

This meme was the best I've ever seen because of what it allows us to present to our readers. But I think I may be quietly dodging them from now on. (You can hold me to that!)

[Pete Aldin]

Heh heh, and feel free to curse. You're not the first! :)

[Chris Owen]

Thanks Pete for helping me realise that I'm normal in my response.
And you're right! In times gone by, I revelled in the opportunity too.
So how can we start a meme that says thanks but no thanks?