A Death

This post has been rolling around my head for a while now, and even though it may be disjointed and not well thought out, I'm going to write it today anyway.

The topic is the death of blogging. A few months back I write about the same topic and some of us had a good conversation around the thought and some others promised to blog more. Unfortunately, since that post there have been four more of my favorite blogs that have fell silent. For me that brings a mixture of anger and sadness.

The anger comes from a place that sees the instant-gratification of things like Facebook and Twitter being quicker to digest and use than blogs. The anger goes away (to some extent) when I realize the irony of that statement in relation to what blogging has done to physical book/thesis reading. So part of me doesn't want to complain, but the other part can't help being sad such a great thing is dying off.

Sure there are folks who still regularly blog. Guy still posts two or three times a day. Kimmy still puts up a thought-provoking post once every week or so. And following the family ramblings of Jen, Karin, and Melissa keeps me laughing. But those are the exceptions. On my blogroll alone, there are over fifteen bloggers who used to post often but rarely, if ever, post anymore. Of those fifteen, I know at least ten of them have a Facebook and/or Twitter account they regularly use.

I don't want this to be a bash post about those network sites or the people that use them. (See my irony comment a couple paragraphs back.) They are great tools to use and have fun with. And I know busy lifestyles make those sites much easier and quicker to access on the go. But like I said, I'm mad and sad that so many of the people I used to respect for their blogging have gone away. The reasons for their silence is as many as the headcount, and I am not attacking anyone for those reasons. I just wanted to state my emotions concerning their exits. Most of them used to write stuff that was really worthwhile to read and spend my time digesting.

The other side of the interaction is the amount of people still visiting the blogs. When no one is writing, there is no need for others to visit. I don't always write for comment-sake, but there are times I (or others) write a post that has great potential for conversation, but with no one reading or visiting the blogosphere anymore, the post lies dead where it was written. I saw this recently on my friend Betsy's blog, where she wrote a great piece on American versus French sentiments. I turned out to be the only responder. Two or three years ago that would have been at least a ten comment post and there could have been some great dialogue there and some opportunites for personal growth and development.

I think the sadness and madness have finally taken their toll on me. I have so much going on in my life I'm not sure I want to bother writing and typing here on Eleven anymore, especially if no one is around to read it. I simply see no reason to keep ignoring the obvious signs of the demise of the blog. It had it's time in the sun, and now it shall go away. I don't think I'll take Eleven down or anything, and I doubt I'll stop checking in with those that are still writing. But for now, I need a break from the gripping sense of loss. Which sounds weird to say about something inanimate like blogging, but I really do feel like something died. Quite sad.