Our Instantly Wired World

Networking. This often is the bane for those of us who have had difficulty looking for work in the age of the WEB. We can attempt to create contacts, and friendships - well not really friendships but definitely close working relationships from where we can develop real work connections. Great conversational exchanges that can bring about a meeting of minds and can generate possibilities of finding a place to be creative - and getting paid for it, too.

How does anyone take that first step online when you can't talk, except through the translator of your keyboard? That's just one of the big difficulties that can arise from putting yourself and your writing out on the internet, but there are also advantages. There were very few newspapers that in the past have had the readership that could reach around the globe, but many blog sites have that capability here in the 21st century.

Writers like Mark Twain often didn't get known as much for their work as journalists, as for those early pieces of fiction. But today a single writer can become well known instantly through an article, or sometimes through the simple turn of a single phrase.

So, if I really want to become a writer with a well visited and subscribed to blog I often have to be first a good reader and responder in various other blog communities around the WEB. Staying in one community alone will probably not get you noticed in this age of instant communication, and that is where the idea of connecting with other writers and those who hire becomes so important. The forum for such communication is no longer that cocktail party where you might be able to look a prospective boss or colleague in the eye and size up your chances from the interactions and maneuvering that occurs one on one in those kind of settings.

Today, often the contacts themselves are ones that are almost unreadable - which can be good for a prospective employer, but more than a bit frustrating for any possible employee. Even through the networking online you can only get a partial picture of who you might be dealing with because there usually isn't the conversational time where you might talk about interests and jobs which can create a well rounded view of who you're dealing with to actually take that next step that might secure an interview.

Networking on the WEB is still in many ways in its infancy and hopefully through video conferencing and similar methods of communication there will soon be ways to develop a form of that "getting to know you," dance so we can get beyond that black and white of the written word and into a career reality with actual prospects.