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It is a relief to learn that blogging has not flatlined!
Over at Gapingvoid, Hugh reports that blogging is not dead, but instead is now regarded as a subset of a large suite of media applications available to all. Hugh confirms that bloggers who want to invest the time and energy into their blogs should carry on publishing. OK. I will. You?
I just hope those who prefer blogging do not take notice of the hype surrounding this subject and do decide not to quit and will carry on to be at the vanguard of the blogging renaissance.
In my opinion, the subtext here is that blogging has been downgraded by bloggers who for whatever reason became disallusioned at blogging likely due to the constant demand on their time and energy resources. Personally I do not see how Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, Twitter and Pownce or any new social networking site that springs up whose raison d ‘etre is to let you create relationships online differs in terms of energy expensed and creativity output. You still need to write in response to messages and be ultra creative to write a 260 character one liner.
Each action requires thought and energy and at the pace of growth the newbies have shown, it will need output from you more often. Maybe. Choice in content and frequency is yours.
Just as in blogging.
Maybe these applications are perceived as blogosphere’s safe havens from the demands of celebrity with the attendant need to fulfil audience expectations. To someone suffering burnout, I can see the attraction. Mass hysteria is a good place to hide away in!
But the new networks will in my opinion, all too soon start taxing the imagination and energy levels. Ergo my view that Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, Twitter and Pownce are well and good and the ‘must be seen at’ sites at the start of the tail. But how robust is the tail? How long will it take before the true lack of that creative spark that fires you up begins to nag at you and then how soon will desertions from there begin too? When it does, (not if), I think it will occur very much more rapidly than has occurred to blogging.
Blogging has proved its value and continues to do so 24/7. I think we are about to arrive at the substance over form argument. Certainly Facebook, MySpace, Jaiku, Twitter and Pownce beat blogging hands down in the race for form.
But blogging reigns supreme as the true king of substance. It’s a question of which of the two you value more. Substance or form?
Meanwhile go write and publish at your blogs!
2 comments ↓
I think both blogging and FB have their place, depending on your mood or needs at any given time.
To me, FB is akin to going to a party and talking shit to your friends for awhile. A light distraction. Whereas blogging is like an intimate dinner with like minded friends, where the conversation is as rich as the meal.
My personal preference remains blogging - which, as I recall, you encouraged me to stick with when I couldn’t find my voice. (For the record, its not quite ‘writing itsself’ as yet…but its getting there!)
Beenzie,
Thanks for the comment. I totally concur.
I am glad you stuck with blogging. You have some good pieces published.
By way of illustation, your blog about the farm and how the lack of cement in SA (the land on which the farm lies is rich in lime so with government shortsightedness, a lovely lime factory will now replace the farm), places your and 300 other people’s livlihoods at peril after hundreds of years of farming in the area, is a great example.
Blog on sister!
Keep it up.
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