Saturday, April 11, 2009

Out of touch already?

Barney Lerten of KTVZ asks if Blogging is Endangered....

I’m not blogging as much because I’m Facebooking and Twittering more, and there’s only so many hours in the day.

Blogging is a somewhat lonely enterprise. Facebook and Twitter are far more social - you are amongst friends, among followers, listening as well as talking, laughing and not just trying to make some “important point.”

No, blogging won’t go away. (Neither will journalism, though boy is it going through some rough times). But I feel I’ve neglected this little corner of cyberspace. As I have Newsvine, which I do enjoy but get tired of the yahoo factor at.

What? I went from cutting edge cool to 'Old Skool' in a New York minute!

Juliejulie helped set me up in Twitter early on, but frankly, I find it uninteresting. It's like being at a cocktail party with a bunch of people you barely know just catching snippets of conversation.

Facebook seems like High School, with cliqs and popularity and social lubrication.

"...far more social..." indeed, which I'm not.

Blogging is about making "important points..." Ouch. Probably true, though I'd never be so egotistic as to think I succeed very often. Probably impossible, but I've tried to keep my ego out as much as possible. Despite Tim's skepticism, for instance, I've never checked my site meter readings again after flirting with them for a few months last year. I found they swayed my content too much.

This is as much about thinking aloud, and keeping a daily record, as it is about communicating. Though I like to see how well I can write (or not.)

"I feel like I've neglected this little corner of cyberspace..."

Well, exactly. You aren't blogging, Barney, so it's lost importance. You are Twittering, so it's gained importance.

I don't know if that quite equates with Blogging being endangered. If it is, so be it. I've never quite gone along with the crowd, anyway.

On a fairly constant basis, I have people who come in who say, "I USED TO buy comics (cards, games, etc.) and I didn't know they were still coming out."

To which I always answer, "Yes. Can you believe it? They went on without you!"

2 comments:

Barney Lerten said...

Well. My blog sparked a blog post from one of my favorite bloggers, so that can't be a bad thing;-)

Wasn't trying to get all wise or super-observational. All blogs are personal. YMMV and all that.

Facebook has connected more closely with family, reconnected me with friends. It has it's cutesy kid junk, but ignore that and it's still a valuable tool.

Twitter can be as well, but it's not for everyone, what is?

Anyway, thanks for the shout-out, even if it's a bit of a put-down. I can take it;-)

Duncan McGeary said...

Barney, no such intent.

I think you're right that facebook and twitter are already overtaking the blogging.

And finding it ironic that I'll probably be stuck doing the old skool thing already!