I haven't blogged for forever, but I do think of blogging and miss it from time to time, so I thought I would stop by and say hello.
At the moment, I'm distracted by the instant gratification of social interaction on Facebook and Twitter. You put something out there and people respond, sometimes immediately. It's a much easier way to share photos (in albums! imagine!) and you can keep up with lots of people all at once. It seems more effective than email, text messaging, and blogging. I've reconnected with people I haven't talked to in years and am getting caught up on all their missing history. I have friends who are pretty spotty with emails, calls, and letters, but are pretty consistent with Facebook. It's opened my whole world and made distances between me and my friends seem almost non-existent. I never thought it would happen, but I guess I'm a web 2.0 convert!
It's not that blogging doesn't have it's own appeal, however. Write a long note on Facebook and see if anyone comments on it. Generally, none of us have the attention span to read through a whole multi-paragraph note with such a tempting buffet of interactions just one click away. If you have something longer and more thought-out or thought-provoking to say, a blog still seems to be the place to do it.
Of course, this brings up the questions: "But is anyone reading your blog anyway?" and "If no one is reading it, does it matter to you?" and "If it does matter to you, is there any way to get more of a connection with people?"
I feel like communication and social interaction is in a really bizarre state right now and no one really knows which direction it will take. Will people who feel they need more human interaction start going to open mic nights instead of posting stuff on their blogs? Will people revert back to mailing letters because it feels more authentic than sending an email or "poking" someone on Facebook? Will we start putting limits on the amount of updating we're doing online because we suddenly wake up one morning and think, "Who cares that I'm brewing coffee? I'm spending so much time telling people what I'm doing that I am not really even doing anything!"
And what would encourage me to start blogging again? I feel like I have things to say, but I don't feel like I have the time to sit down and write it all out. Could I be less wordy and more frequent? Could I just throw stuff up here and not agonize about spelling, punctuation, or content? Is less more? Or is less just less? And does it really matter? Maybe I shouldn't even be thinking about stuff like this.
Such is life in the modern age. Strangely, I love it.
