Swift Assessment
Posted by TestOut Staff on
Earlier today, the eyes and hearts of millions around the world were captivated by a strange and wondrous phenomenon. Some might call it a natural phenomenon. Others would likely describe it as bearing the weight of both terrestrial mystery and celestial purpose. Wherever you land, there's no doubt that the star in the firmament shining most brightly this morning was singer, oft-spurned lover/philosopher, and Voice of a Generation Taylor Swift. (Gotcha!)
— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) August 21, 2017
Yes, that's right, this is not another rumination on the eclipse. Talk about yesterday's news. On this innocuous Monday in August, the unshielded eyes of a nation were glued not on the heavens above, but on the more earthly constellation of Ms. Swift's social media accounts. After wiping out all previous record of her social media activities last week, the sultry chanteuse returned to the sharewaves with an unexpectedly sibilant silence.
"Silence" because the short video clip she posted to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram has no sound. "Sibiliant" because a snaky hiss would likely accompany the image of a twitching reptilian tail if there were any audio. What does it all mean?! Only time (and Taylor) will tell. When you have 85 million followers on Twitter alone, you could probably cause a commotion simply by tweeting a photo of your breakfast bagel.
Given that this snakelike oddity follows on the heels of the aforementioned purge of all prior social media sharing, it's probably an early signal of Swift's first new recording since 2014. Rev up the publicity, and all of that. In an 2016 interview with Vogue that has now reentered the news cycle, Swift said, "This is the first time in 10 years that I haven't known what's next." Now, however, it would appear that she's figured out at least some of what the future may hold.
What actually caught our attention in all of this, however, is a further thought shared in that same interview: "I decided I was going to live my life a little bit," Swift said, "without the pressure on myself to create something." And can't we all relate to that? Whether you're the world's hottest female recording artist, or just a hard-working IT professional, it's important to remember that "work" is sometimes not the most important end in life.
Here at the IT Insights blog, we're all about encouraging our readers to push themselves farther and harder and faster. We love to encourage that drive to improve, to learn more, to continually climb the IT ladder, rising to new heights both personally and professionally. Challenge and hard work are good for the soul. It's also true, however, what they say about all work and no play. Or at least all work and no living one's life a little bit.
So while you're hustling along toward self-improvement and that next awesome job, don't forget to sometimes pull over to the side of the road, turn the car off, and maybe get out and wander around for a bit. Just enjoy being here. You can always turn into a snake — or a dragon, or a lizard — and create a blurry video to announce your return, whenever the ol' batteries have been recharged.