A massive overload of things to think about and keep track of is a hallmark of modern life. It might be accelerating, or possibly, it's just that natural sensation of getting farther and farther behind as you age. My 69-year-old dad described it as climbing to the top of a rollercoaster up until your 20th birthday and then going down an ever-steeper drop after that.
To be sure this sensation isn't helped at all when you're running a fairly aggressive schedule. A week in Spain for the Thunderbird launch (on this month's cover) and some Catalan touring (story to come later), three shootouts near-simultaneously, and a shorter gap between issues than we normally have made for an exciting beginning of the summer. Then came the Great Time Waster.
For years now I've been harassed by friends and colleagues for not joining the flavor of the moment in social networking, so much so that my wife and I have started blending the names of them all in jest ("Check out my SpaceBook page!" "Do you spend much time on MyFace?"), stuff like that.
I've been involved with various high-tech forms of social networking before there even was an internet, so it's old hat to me, and really, I'm just over it. My first tech job was at a BBS. Imagine, hundreds of people interacting via computer! Fascinating isn't it? Even then, when everybody truly knew just about everybody, there were people who just couldn't help but use the shield of electronica to say some pretty daft, or downright rude things.
My allergy only intensified when I started my career at motorcycle.com. The forums were vicious wastelands of trolls and ignoramuses, and as part of my job was maintaining the site (including the forums) it pretty much put me off that sort of thing for good. Or so I thought.
But then, within the same week, I signed up for Twitter, and my wife Lizzie on Facebook. I figured Twitter was harmless enough. It would help me follow a few key motorcycle industry news sources, and even put out my own little tidbits for readers who were into that sort of thing. Most importantly it was not a giant time eater.
Naturally, I followed Lizzie down the Facebook rabbit hole. Ah, here was a true time waster, capable of eating entire days without even a pause for proper nutrition. What with magazine deadlines, bikes to ride, kids to raise, and a life to live, the rollercoaster just picked up speed.
That said, it does a very good job at giving you whatever and whomever you want, and not a bit more, so filtering out the chaff is pretty easy. I am getting even better informed of all the minutiae that I need to know about the motorcycle industry, and I've caught up with a ton of old friends that I'd lost, and there's been no bad experiences so far...other than no longer having any "spare" time.
In case you feel the need for a look into an editor's life you can find me on Twitter @billybox, hopefully I can take you all along when I do some of the trips I get to do, or ride new bikes. You will then realize just how pathetically infrequently we actually ride motorcycles. Facebook is just for people I actually know, so don't ask.
In other news, we just wrapped up shooting next issue's Beginner Bike Comparison. As part of that, my aforementioned wife of ten years finally learned how to ride motorcycles. You know, it probably seems just as funny to us as it does to you, but between buying a house, and (until recently) having toddlers around, it just wasn't conducive to the two of us being out riding around. That said, I also refused to teach her personally. The Motorcycle Safety Foundation's course is so good at getting a beginner up to speed, that I wanted her to have a foundation before I started peppering her with experienced rider tips. She agrees. After just a two day course, she went from wobbly and unsure, to thoroughly in control.
In a place like LA, it may not be enough, but with practice and careful monitoring, she'll be motoring alongside me in no time. Now I just need some free time and some childcare...
-Billy Bartels Contact Billy at cruiser@sorc.com