From Selena Shepherd's Lookbook. Photo: Polina Bakht
I came across quite by accident the app Anchor, only for mobile phones, both Android and iPhone, and loved it. It is a way for people to broadcast short audioclips to a global audience and then get recorded feedback. This way you have a proper conversation about a number of topics.
I had to try it and the idea came to me I should start a conversation on ageing. I recently contributed a post to The Age of No Retirement - not yet up - and so I thought that I could also revive my Soundcloud account and move between Anchor and Soundcloud seamlessly.
I should confess that I have a terrible complex about my voice, I hate the very sound of it and find my accent, when I listen to my recordings, really weird, an in-between thing. Well, I am an in-betweener. I sound foreign in my own country and wherever I am, I am always an outsider, I am always asked where I am from. Time to accept this and take it in my stride!
I used to hate the way I looked in photographs and now I am so used to being photographed I no longer care. I guess it must be the same about one's voice, after a while one gets used to it in recordings and then the fun can begin. I am absolutely fascinated by the amazing things one can do with the help of today's technology and I love social media. I would not have discovered anchor if I had not had this curiosity in me to know more about technological developments that enhance connectivity. Only this morning I happened to read Jo Elvin's piece for Glamour, June issue, which is all about social media. I totally agree with Jo: social media can definitely help us be connected and yes, there is a lot to be celebrated about it. I loved the story Jo tells about her daughter and her daughter's online friend with whom she shares film viewing on holidays - she has become a member of the family, through her iPad presence.
When I first moved away from my own family and country - oh God, it was so long ago - I kept up with them through the odd phone call, as one did, and through letter writing, which I loved. But What's app and Skype have made communication instantaneous and I find that now I talk a lot more to my younger sister than I ever did, because she is just a What's app call away. whreas earlier I'd call if there was something really important to discuss now I might call to find out how to cook artichokes the way you can't learn from Google - my sister is a good cook and my brother -in-law is a chef.
Going online has often expanded my horizons. It is by viewing it online that I have discovered the work of very interesting artists, not to mention great blogs. One of my favourites is by the lovely Rosalind Jana, an Oxford English graduate, author, model and only 21 years old! Every time she writes a new blog post I get an email alert and I always look forward to reading it. Her new book, an exploration of the state of being a teenager, partly autobiographical, is very interesting too, and wonderfully written, I had a preview of it on Kindle and will definitely buy it. I am no teenager but I just love the style! And this young woman is very, very wise.
Back to the idea of podcasting. I started doing them just to try a new thing but I can see that it will probably grow on me over time. How exciting. I just have to figure out better ways of integrating Anchor with Soundcloud and will explore options. And practise speaking into a mike of course, as practice makes perfect.
I feel tempted to delete the ones I have uploaded but no, they are useful, if only to see, six months down the line, how much progress I have made. For now the ones recorded on Anchor are in the public domain but I might make them private and use other versions, like the directly recorded Soundcloud podcasts without conversations with others, we shall see.
Feedback would be greatly appreciated.
Here's to new beginnings and new ventures!
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