Social Media
It seems that people are writing in their blogs less. It’s been a gradual decline which I think has made it somewhat less noticeable. Perhaps it’s more along the lines that we’re aware of it, but set the issue aside for another day. This blog is an example of one with a declining number of posts.
To a degree we can blame services like facebook & twitter. I use twitter quite a bit because it allows me to keep up with and interact with a large number of people with relative ease. Generally, interaction on twitter provides more immediate response which makes it more appealing. For the people who use facebook daily, I can see how having everyone’s content aggregated together makes it convenient/appealing as well. Since I’ve been using a feed reader for years it’s less of a convenience for me.
I expect there is another side of it as well. Until the advent of the web, most people had no place to talk/write that wasn’t shared by others. I think most of us had built up a large reservoir of thoughts and ideas that had had no outlet. Now that we’ve had a few years to write, most of the ideas and values we hold have had some form of airing. In a sense, we have less to talk about. Many of the things that are important to us have been read and responded to.
I think you are right. About both things. I have seen a lot fewer comments on my blog lately and I don’t have a traffic meter (I think( but I’d be willing to bet the traffic is way down.
I also can see where a lot of the ideas have been played out as well. I find myself skipping many of the blogs I used to read a lot (homeschooling blogs, Catholic blogs, Mom blogs) and visiting blogs in new categories, like art blogs because I am looking for new content and a fresh perspective. (I left the political blogs behind years ago because they never have anything positive to say.) And I also find that I have less and less to say that hasn’t been said a thousand times by myself and others,and so I am posting less frequently. I hate repeating myself, you know?
Comment by Theresa — November 3, 2009 @ 12:40 pm
Agreed. There are few blogs in my “regulars” that post regularly anymore. We are letting a few of ours go but even though we hardly ever blog I am having a hard time getting rid of thegookins.net. And I’m glad for the friends I’ve met through blogging.
We use facebook and it has been nice to catch up with people I lost track of, but then there are those people that find me that I really wish hadn’t
Comment by christine — November 3, 2009 @ 6:20 pm
@Theresa – we don’t read newspapers for the same reason.
I remember when COD used to give a good fisking to something that was plain nonsense. After 40 or 50 of them, you get the sense that people will continue to write nonsense no matter how many times you correct it.
@christine – I think having made many friends through blogging has been the best part of it.
Comment by Ron — November 4, 2009 @ 12:39 am
#Theresa – I’m in the same place.
Comment by Andrea — November 5, 2009 @ 8:12 am