To quote the fabulous fashion icon Patsy Stone: You can never have enough hats, gloves, and shoes.
Unfortunately, this gay didn’t get the fashion gene. Ask anyone who knows me. Comfort is the name of the game for me, not fashion. Luckily, I didn’t get my dad’s color blindness, or we’d have a real problem. I at least match.
However, one thing I can’t seem to have enough of is social media accounts. Instagram. Facebook. TikTok. Somewhere out there is a Twitter account (I refuse to call it X) I don’t do anything with. Add this blog and a podcast, and I wonder sometimes if this is enough—or perhaps too much. Something I don’t often think about until someone asks me what I’m doing some evening or weekend.
“I have to write the blog post for next week.”
“I have to record/edit the next podcast.”
Two things I never imagined saying when I started in this profession. But then again, no one did.
However, in the early days of the Great Recession, one of my business partners—at the time—walked in and stated that we were on Twitter and Facebook. No asking if that was something we wanted to do. She just made the announcement, and we were off and running. Didn’t understand it. Didn’t know if we wanted to. But once she had her foot in the water, she came to me with the idea of making a podcast.
Hmmm…
Of course, social media wasn’t anything to bother with in 2009. All you had to do was ask any seasoned architect. It wasn’t going to last, and it certainly wasn’t a way for architects to find clients or improve their business. It’s a fad. A fad that’s been going on for 16 years.
I realized last week that the end of March marked eight years of The Big Gay Architect. Since 2017, I’ve written 261 blog posts—forty-five last year alone—and this year is teeing up to be as prolific. The Architecture Geeks podcast is now into Season 7. Before that, six-and-a-half years of The Architecture Happy Hour podcast.
Funny that when I first started the blog, I wasn’t thinking about social media. That’s always been for others. But with all the political craziness over the last few months—not to mention the last election cycle—having access to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Bluesky, etc. has been comforting, not to mention critical. While the initial idea behind social media might have been to connect people socially, we now have platforms that allow us to connect politically.
And while Patsy may have been right about hats, gloves, and shoes, I do wonder if we can never have enough social media as well. Once Musk took control of Twitter, users fled to other platforms like Bluesky. With Zuckerberg’s nose up Trump’s rear end, people are beginning to consider how much longer to stay on Facebook and Instagram.
But what will be the next platform hitting the social media airwaves to provide a landing spot for the disenchanted Instagram users? No doubt some helpful geek is out there assembling the newest app, just waiting for the right moment to launch.
Because in times like this, you can never have enough.
Enough ways to connect.
Enough ways to find like-minded souls.
Enough ways to protest what is happening to the queer community.
Never enough.
