On, In, and Around Mondays: What's Your Klout?
Last week, my High Calling team got into a conversation about Klout. I went to the Klout website to see what the buzz was about...
"Everyone has Klout. Discover yours," says the site tagline.
I thought about this a lot. Klout's definition of clout is something like... how much you tweet and Facebook and get retweeted and shared. It's about who you influence and whether someone "important" influences you. Klout can even put a number on it.
But a number can't describe depth of influence. It can't say who is actually changed by knowing me (or you). And it can't measure how.
On Sunday, because of the hurricane, I stayed home with the girls. Sara had recently told me she misses how we used to learn hymns together. I never would have known, if she hadn't spoken up.
So here we were home on a Sunday, and the logical thing presented itself to me: why not learn a hymn together?
"Could you be our researcher?" I asked Sonia.
"What do you mean?"
I asked her to find out more about the hymn writer's life, the music, the history, the symbols. I think I'll write about that over at Love Notes to Yahweh; after all, she did teach us some very interesting things, some of which I suspect she and her sister will carry forward into their lives.
Mostly, this rich hymn experience on a rainy Sunday morning reminded me that clout cannot truly be measured. Mine, Sonia's, or yours. We never know what the influence of our words, our hands, our song might be on even one heart. It cannot be tracked like a tweet or a Facebook share.
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On, In and Around Mondays (which partly means you can post any day and still add a link) is an invitation to write from where you are. Tell us what is on, in, around (over, under, near, by...) you. Feel free to write any which way... compose a tight poem or just ramble for a few paragraphs. But we should feel a sense of place. Would you like to try? Write something 'in place' and add your link below.
If you could kindly link back here when you post, it will create a central meeting place. :)
This post is also shared with Laura Boggess, for...
Labels: family stories, klout, On in and Around Mondays
posted by L.L. Barkat at 9:03 AM
12 Comments:
Most younger children don't even know the hymns any more, much less the stories behind them. At least, living in Southern California, that is true.
Miss LL, I woke up this morning with you and yours on my heart. I hope all is good.
"Come Thou Fount," aye? That is my favorite hymn. Here is a version I love:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1bSlS6OWTs
(whenever I hear the word "clout" I think of someone with a rather big stick...)
Blessings.
Thank God we do not need to chase after clout...
happy that God blessed you with the time of hymns... so precious. And thanks Darlene for sharing that beautiful video... which I promptly stole and shared on my fb. =)
Are you saying, in a roundabout way, that you weren't happy with your Klout score? ;)
Seriously, I feel the same way. I plan to use the score to encourage me to interact more often and meaningfully in my social media circles.
Sam, I actually had a pretty good score, but it seemed to me that this is not meaningful in any real sense. What does it tell us of the nature of my "clout"? Not much, really. And that's what I kept thinking.
I really liked this post. We can't measure true clout.
By the way, I'd love to read on occasion how online high school is going for you... we're just emerging into the high school years too, although only taking 2 online classes and doing the rest on our own.
Anna, I'm sure I'll be posting about it over at http://greeninventionscentral.blogspot.com
That's where I put a lot of the home education stuff now :)
Thanks for asking! And I look forward to any interaction you might want to have in the comment box, about the home education process. :)
I, for one, am glad that God doesn't need a Klout tracker to determine the ways He will use me to influence others.
I love the way you are keeping the hymns in your girls' lives--there is so much that I know that is because the lyrics of those old hymns are embedded deep in my heart!
I think the Klout scoring thing is goofy. For instance, I just checked tonight and had a Klout score higher than Ann Voskamp. I mean, really? Also, the thing-a-mo-bob claims I'm influential with regard to Indonesia. Hmmm ...
But I know that I DID have clout today when I prayed with my two daughters at the end of the driveway, when I delivered diapers to a single mother going through a tough time, when I had lunch with a friend. ... And two people had clout in my life when they called to pray with me ... And so it goes. Can't measure some things with a Klout score, right?
Some things can't be quantified. I think clout is one of them.
For example, I could not put a number on how the line, 'bind my wandering heart to Thee' undoes me.
Every time.
I love the way you teach. You make a girl want to learn. Speaking from personal experience.
I'm reading posts late this week...I've always viewed sites with suspicion. I think of that line, "there will always be greater and lesser than yourself" line from the Desiderata poem. I'm just not sure how the knowledge adds value to life.
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