From Fountain Pen to Social Media

(While it’s great to hang onto things like fountain pens, we must get into the modern world.)

I must confess – I do like a good fountain pen, journaling, and Tweeting.

Maybe it is my age that makes me a Traditionalist but proof of my membership in this category is surely found in my preference for and use of an old fashioned fountain pen. In fact, I drafted this blog post with my Parker 75…an elegant, albeit expensive, Sterling Silver fountain pen that harkens to all who follow the show Mad Men on AMC. It is filled with jet-black ink. Beautiful, wouldn’t you agree? I have never used any other type of pen than a fountain pen and despite a collection of wonderful such pens, I continue to gravitate toward this same pen. Perhaps this is out of tradition, or a simple attraction to its timeless style and enduring appeal?

As much as I love Tweeting and Facebook posting, here’s why I love writing with a fountain pen. I journal every morning and have done so my entire life. I call it thinking on paper. Looking back over years of journals and jotters, I can easily review my progression toward success and who I have become. My writing shapes my mind and defines me.

Here’s my secret: To keep a virtual journal while advertising yourself or services, relish who you are…the appeal and honorable status of being what some may consider an ‘old-timer’ but one must purposefully choose to not just ‘exist’ in the modern world. Using a number of social media tools now, I have come to like it and have become a Twitter guy! It requires careful and deep thinking to Tweet, limiting oneself to 140 characters while making each statement clear and more importantly, crafted to deliver value. I don’t want to come across as a Twit but rather a Tweeter (is that the right terminology?). So, I challenge you to consciously choose to ‘actively live’ in this changing world…and join me on Twitter Thomas Ackerman!

What amazes me when I search for friends or peers on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn:

With a few exceptions, I find that many of my contemporaries have little to no presence on any social media site, and few appear any on Google search results! Why? I know the answer to that question because not too long ago, I was one of them until my business partner insisted that I get up-to-date – he was right! My statements and mindset about ‘not needing or wanting to have anything to do with these new communication tools,’ was actually detrimental to my success. I may be older, but I’m not dead yet!

In my earlier years, I sent handwritten notes to associates, colleagues, and clients, all written with my fountain pen. I am known far and wide for this choice of writing instrument. Imagine my dismay at learning that nearly half of college sophomores cannot write in cursive and some states are starting to apply cursive as an element of basic scholastic testing again. Penmanship is no longer taught in most schools. What is the world coming to? Well, it is coming to a faster, yet differently communicative world. People seem to be communicating with each other more than ever and the exchange of ideas is accelerating. This is good, my friends. It expands our knowledge and our ability to remain connected with other humans on a meaningful level. That is, if we choose to do so.

Early encounters with Facebook: I noted the volume of people online telling the world what they ate for lunch, what cute thing their child or grandchild just said, or why they will or will never do business with a said party again. This hardly qualifies as meaningful communication or exchange of ideas. Now, I see much less of this and a lot more of knowledge sharing. Again, this is good.

So where are we now? Personally, I have come full circle. I remain in solidly attached to my fountain pen and use it every day, enjoying the strong silver material – writing with it every day. However, I love using my other communication tool, a computer. I am expanding my use of social media tools and am attracting a large number of followers. Many of these are people I have never met in person but that’s oddly okay…because we are connected, exchanging ideas, and learning how to communicate within this changing world. I am “out there” as they say. Full circle, fountain pen to Social Media and back again. Some say the world is shrinking, getting smaller. In my view, it is expanding. My little part of the physical world is small, relative to the World, but my connection with the world at large is expanding exponentially.

I encourage you to pick up your pen, make a few notes, think carefully, and then Tweet, Facebook or LinkedIn post – it just might change someone’s life in a positive way! Does it get much better than that? Answer, probably. Stay tuned and ever watchful. Take it from me, do not reject the new but keep the best part of the old that has shaped who you are. Rejoice in life!