We are all guilty of it. Facebook, Slashdot, Twitter, Digg, Reddit and other social media sites have made it easy (trivial, even) to share links to good content on the web and like good consumers, we've done as we are told. We see it. We like it. We link to it on our 8 favorite sharing sites. We continue surfing the web. And isn't that awesome? I mean, we get to show our 200 closest friends exactly what we are reading in the expectation that they will appreciate it. The greatest compliment, of course, is when one of those close friends re-shares the same link. Oh joy! We inspired our friend to show others what we showed them!

I love being able to one-click-share things I enjoy with my friends, but I regret what it's done to me. It's turned me into a medium and turned me away from being a source. Sharing is wonderful. It's immanently human, and I don't mean to suggest we should stop. But I do mean to ask what happened to all the great original content. My friends share link after link and they have stopped (mostly) sharing the contents of their own minds. I miss that. I have smart, funny, insightful friends and I have always enjoyed hearing their thoughts in the past. Sadly, Facebook has nearly ended that. All I get now are links to others' content, snippets of mundane life ("Bob checked in to Starbucks" and "Sally likes Farmville"), and the occasionally clever, but ultimately meaningless, status update. I appreciate knowing what my friends like and what they are doing, but I appreciate more knowing why they like something and why they are doing something.

Take a moment to post a short paragraph or two talking about something original. I understand writing can be hard to start. Maybe I can help. I'll post four writing ideas below. Take one. Hell, take all four! Just take a moment to post something on the web that came entirely from your own head. If you do, I promise to link to it. ;-)

• Look around you. Pick one thing (a strawberry, an interesting chair, your favorite shirt, the waiting room, or the dream home in your mind) and describe it. Make sure you are specific. Describe the colors, the textures, the shapes and smells, the taste of whatever you've picked as the object of your writing attention.
• Think back to something memorable. Describe it narratively. Think about your last day on a job, the time you went to a store with your grandmother, the crucial sixty seconds of a game, the first time you saw your child, or the peaceful lunchtime walk you took. Pick something, and share it. Talk about how you felt, what you enjoyed or hated about it, or how it impacted your life.
• Pick something you know how to do well. Explain the process of doing it. Whether it's setting up a JBoss server, making an origami swan, fighting for freedom, running for public office, linking your blog to Facebook, or buying a car, there is someone who will benefit from what you know. Share your knowledge and make the world better. Be specific. Don't forget any steps or assume any knowledge. Step through the process procedurally.
• Think about something you believe, but cannot prove fully. Explain why you believe it. Do you be believe cell phones cause cancer? That America is on the wrong path? That roses are overrated. Adults are just obsolete children? That Tom's blog is a waste of time? That Buffy the Vampire Slayer was the best show ever? That XHTML2 is better than HTML5? Well then, take the time to explain why you believe it and how that believe changes what you do.

I look forward to seeing what you write. Now, I'm off to Red Lobster, where I will take a pic and post it on Facebook with little surrounding content. I mean, let's face it. MY mundane activities are interesting, right?