Which explains why I’ve been feeling so goddamn unmotivated lately. Uninspired, tired, craving a greasy breakfast of bacon and cheesy eggs to soak up some of last night. Where am I going with this? No, really, where are we all going? I guess what I need is a guidance counselor because lately I’ve been wondering about the future of blogging.
The past few months have seen the demise of a few of my favorite blogs. Others have taken hiatuses (hiatii?). I, for one, have been having trouble writing, the muse of good content like a floater in the corner of my eye that is not really there. Jesus. See? That whole muse/floater shit? Totally unacceptable and yet it stays for lack of anything else at all.
Once upon a time blogs cracked open the voices of a million different people. Suddenly we could all be heard. This is what I had for lunch. What I thought of that movie. Here is a pic of that dress I really really want. And we listened and we read and we wrote, one big happy family of nothing and everything and then some.
Gradually “real” writers began to listen. Journalism, news media, fiction—it all became a little bloggy itself, the listen-to-me-ness of a world gone wide web. Enter Twitter, the evolution of the 140 character story. We twatted. We facebooked, tumbled, 4 squared and stumbled. I am here! Look at me! The party grew, stats increased. Some got book deals, bad photos of kids taken with old cameras now popping up in Google image searches. No, me! Over here! The party suddenly so loud it became hard to hear.
And what of the blogs? In a world where thousands of status updates pop up by the second, are blogs becoming the guy you don’t want to get stuck talking to at the party? You know, the one whose stories are too long, boring? Who the fuck cares what he had for lunch anyway?
I started this blog because I wanted to write. Well look at that—I’m writing. The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. I wouldn’t be human if I didn’t wonder what comes next. Does the lazy dog ever get up? Chase the fox? Nip him on the hind leg and shake him violently? What do you think of the future of blogging? Of content, of platform, of me?
*I swear I’m not fishing for compliments. I just want to know where this is going. This everything. Also? That pic of the brain & the Sistine Chapel freaks me the eff out in a good way, and yes, there is a very good way to be freaked out.
39 comments:
thanks. that was like a bucket of ice water over my head after running a marathon. fresh. after decorno bagged it, I was funkatized for two days. I am new to blogging but have been stuck replaying all these questions in my mind since then...
if we could find the appropriate format for some frank discussion on this...that'd be good
hang in there with your growing pains...
I don't know what the future of blogging is... nor the future of newspapers, magazines, books, or their cousins in "new media."
What I do know is, you are a great writer, and the only reason that has a connection to blogging is because that is how we have access to that writing. If you wrote columns for the Los Angeles Times, I would subscribe. If you wrote a book, I would rush to Amazon to buy it.
I know you were not fishing for compliments, and that is not why I tell you this. Please just know that you should never doubt your talent or your impact. Yes, your content is better on some days than others. Yes, there are days when I wonder, 'What the heck compelled her to write that?'
But, on more days than not, there is something hilarious, something astonishing, something inspiring, something breathtaking in what you write. Often, it is not even the content, but simply your magical turn of phrase. No, your blog may never change the world, but thank you for making my little piece of it more enjoyable.
I, myself, have only been a part of this blogger family for about 6 months or so. Frankly, I did not know a thing about it until a friend introduced me to a few blogs, and I spontaneously began my own (if beginning a blog can be spontaneous). In any case, I certainly have no idea what blogging was like years ago nor do can I imagine where it will be months or years from this moment. What I do know, however, is that your blog; your words brighten my day. I am still convinced you have the most adorable child on the planet and I often hope that my future children will have even a tiny bit of the "it" factor that your daughter seems to have. I also hope that in due time, I take note from you on motherhood in the area of loving my kid with humor and unbridled adoration. Wherever you take this blog in the great unknown of the future... I hope that you keep writing, because it does mean something.
wildmagnolia9.blogspot.com
i read your blog because you are a fucking riot.
keep writing.
Friends tell me the future of blogging is vlogging, which is a little terrifying. I, for one, am enjoying good old-fashioned write-y blogs like yours for the time being.
I for one have been reading your blog for a long while and although I don't often comment - I love reading about your view on things - you're funny, creative, fresh and a very talented writer - wherever you go, I'll still be reading! :)
all i know is that i look forward to your blog every day more then anyone else's, and i miss you terribly if you miss a day or are late posting... you warm my heart both with your humour and your sentiment. i would also buy your book or read your column no matter where it appeared. i'm just glad i found you ;)
I've read your blog for at year or two...I really liked your entries about Zoey, family, etc. It seems like there's been less of that (maybe due to that potential sex offender who found your blog)? Anyway, I miss those posts...but still love your writing.
I love your blog - please don't go the way of the never to be heard from again folk.....we need you.
Blogs in general might be a dime a dozen - but the ones that weather the storm and can still kick ass are treasures.
You have a treasure chest of awesome!!
I'm just keepin' on keepin' on. I personally won't quit. It's interesting to see the path blogging has taken over the past 4 years that I've been involved.
I love it and hate it at times.
If you stop blogging I'll have to just take my laptop out to the garden and bury it under the wisteria. Nothing else on the damn thing is as much fun to read. Even on your off days you wake up my brain.
I want to have a bronze statue cast in your likeness and erected in my front lawn. No, really. Petunia Face is the I Ching in Blogging.
"Be the ball, Danny."
You're wrong. I HATE the new "mommyblogs" and blogher blogs - the advertising drives me insane. I hate the fact that people that used to write for enjoyment and entertainment now MAKE A LIVING "branding" themsleves, as one blogger wrote. And her blog, I'll never understand how she even got advertising. Yet she belongs to blogher, gets checks from google, etc etc. The blog is boring and dry. I have a point here, I swear. I love your blog. I can even forgive you if you put adverts on it (I access thru Reader, so haha). Please don't stop unless you want to.
All I know is that Twitter & Facebook I could easily live without. And want to. But, with so many in my neighborhood on FB, I have that anxious sense of missing out on the party if I don't check in.
I was on vacation last month and didn't miss FB AT ALL. It was a relief to be away from the mindless status updates. But my favorite blogs --I missed them a lot, missed hearing their voices and seeing what they were up to. I've only been reading you for about 2 months and I'm so glad that I found you.
I'm not a very active blogger myself, but I do know that blogging has changed the way I view community, photography and just my world view in a positive way.
Where will we all be in 5, 10, 20 years? Who knows. But for today, it feels right.
I hear ya. I used to write about everything and anything I had on my mind. Until I found out people from work, including my boss, were reading my blog. So I stopped admitting thing, like that time I cried in the shower. I stopped venting and being as open and honest. I still try to keep it up, because I need to write. Even though I almost never have time to do it as well as I'd like. Even if what I'm writing that day is trite and boring to most people, at least I'm getting at least one sentence out there, and I know it's being shared with someone else. I do it for me.
And I hope you are still enjoying it, too. Because if you split... Man, that sure would suck
why does it have to go anywhere?
just write. or don't.
i love you though.
i have wondered the same thing. if this gets old and stale. whats next. i do love reading your blog, but things change, so whats next?? is it like a sitcom thats gone on too long? i dont know ... i think you should write a book- and maybe since your work told you you couldnt mention them in your blog, maybe you should write a book about them instead! haha!
I totally get you with the "where is it going" thing. I haven't posted on my blog in ages and I miss how jazzed I used to feel when I thought of something to post about, couldn't wait to get home to write it, or would sneakily post it from work. When I look back at my first posts I had so much more to say... did I run out of words? Out of sentiment? Have I exposed all my private bits and maybe I have nothing left to show? Two years ago mine was one blog in a million, two million, and it still is, but it seems there are so many bloggers out there with a lot to say about not very much, and none of it interests me or anyone I know and yet they have 200, 300 comments a day, multiply that by 3 when they have a giveaway. How does that happen? Why are there so many people reading the banal, and fawning over it?
But you, you have a funny fresh way with words and I too would subscribe to your paper or buy your book. I envy insight like yours and the ability to put it down on virtual paper for the rest of us to read.
I would miss you terribly...the way your words entangle, then unravel, then form a perfect idea that connects us all. But you have to do what will make you happy. I feel like I'm stuck in the shit all the time lately..no motivation, no idea what I want to say but feeling the urgency to write so I don't lose what little following I have...and that just isn't right. That's not why I started my blog.
But we would all miss you so...so, write or don't....but in the end....DO...cuz' you mean something to us all...
xoxoxo,
Brandi
Sounds like SOMEBODY needs a hug....or a kick in the ass...and as your adoring Mom and most ardent fan in all that you do and are, here I am, not only ready but mandated by both roles to do both. Just off the top of my head I can think of many "reasons" why your blog is meaningful....What an incomparable treasure PF will be to Zoey in the years to come.... For temporary lack of a forum for your writing passion...because "writers write", you blog..... Because you have a group of people who LOVE to read what you write-you entertain, you make us laugh, cry, shake our heads in wonder, shake us up-and more than anything else you share, you GIVE...give of not only your time, energy, talent, thoughts, insecurities...you give the most precious thing of all because in every post, in one way or another, you give yourself. You honestly and bravely put out there, not just your talent but your essense. You lay yourself bare because you DO write and hit the send button offering up YOU-your absolute love for Zoey, your dysfunctional but loving family, your fears and insecurities, your triumphs,your despair,the delicate underbelly of silliness-you share it all. Your blog censors nothing except that information that keeps your child, your life safe from the inevitable sickos that prey.
WHY? There is no answer, why even the question...because you CAN. Where is it going? Who the Fuck knows where anything is going. NOW is all there is. And you gloriously claim the NOW in your writing. Were you to keep a journal, the writing might be the same but it is the GIVING of it that is the phenomenum. So, some days you hsve nothing to say, some days you feel like an arrogant ass for even thinking that anyone would wnat to read what you write; so what? Every single day you post, I am in awe simply because you do it. And after reading the comments, I see that I am in good company of many who feel as I do-that the world is a little bit better because you DO write a blog. So, get over it....you keep on giving us what so many of us have come to crave and love....YOU.... and the slices of your life you write so beautifully and so bravely share. And this is coming from the Mom you so often expose...and love. Keep on you're doing GREAT!
With All the LOVE in the World,
Mom
I've said it before & I say it again now: I love yer blog.
The cream always rises to the top. You are the real thing, don't stop.
I am not a wife. I am not a mother. I am neither writer or blogger. I do not know you personally. I don't know where I am going...let alone where the government, the wide world web or technology is taking us. I do know that the first time I read your blog I laughed until I cried (turquois shoes circa September 2008 - which, by a hunch I found again by guesstimate in your archives...just for reference accuracy purposes) and I never stopped tuning in. And once I found it, I reveled in it again. You make me laugh, and you have made me cry..but in such a touching way with the way you openly express both everyday things, accomplishments, struggle, achievement, wild, weird, honest, and beautiful and the list goes on and on. Do what your heart wants with your writing. But know this, no matter what...you HAVE a gift..believe in that.
OH SUSANNAH...
34 stole my entire post...just joking...but she (or he) said what I wanted to say.
When I saw turquoise shoes...I started laughing instantly...I'm not sure how I found you...but once I did...I have NOT missed a day!
All I have left is the dixie cup...and a thumbs up...for you know I think you are completely awesome!
Can I just "ditto" your mom's comment?
Can I just "ditto" your mom's comment?
I don't care where this is going, what they think, who cares, who doesn't, JUST DON'T STOP! Even uninspired you are inspiring.
Good god, you guys, don't make me quote Brokeback Mountain...
I wish I knew how to quit you.
And there it is. I'm not going anywhere for now, and please know that I don't mean to play coy. I'm just wondering about the future of blogging. This is a fairly new media outlet; it is interesting to see how bloggers maintain momentum, myself included. How do we/I stay inspired? Fresh? Relevant? Or should I stop asking questions and just write because I love to write??
I love you guys, really, I do. Ennis. Surely there is a reader named Ennis out there? Because that would be awesome.
xo,
S
Holy crap, I just wrote this same thing today.
And thanks to your commenter, Kelly, I got to come here and hear my sentiments echoed exactly.
Where are we going? I don't know.
At this point, I don't care. I'm just going to keep on keeping on.
I believe you should do the same.
Sometimes we don't have to know (which makes me very uncomfortable b/c I'm a control geek).
Here's to uncertainty!
There's something going around - I've been having so many discussions similar to this lately. And because of some recent developments, I was *this* close to pulling my own blog. As one of your other commenters said "why does it have to go anywhere?". Can't a blog just be a blog?
I'd miss you if you went.
you blog for me, admit it.
Hi S, I stumbled upon PF after reading some snarky comment you made on a mutual friend's FP page awhile back. Since then, I've enjoyed checking in to see what's on your mind. Love the wordplay, the honesty, and the comic relief. At a moment when the publishing industry is imploding and more and more authors will be coming online to publish (google, amazon apple etc.), I see a great future for gifted writers (like you) that have gushing fans wanting more. So buck up and keep going, because the future is about to land on a doorstep near you. cheers, Ennis (not really :))
i started to blog b/c i too wanted to write. i wanted to write before any sense of creativity and wit i had left was crushed beneath the heel of my evil corporate boss like a little bity grape. i don't even read blogs. well, my mom forced coco and kelley on me and after i got done looking at all the pretty pictures i clicked on a few of her recommended blogs...thankfully, yours was one of the first i read and when you find a good thing, why keep looking. that is to say...i still don't read too many blogs. anyway, enough about me, back to you since you were fishing ;) while you were wondering about blogging pains, i was writing about how cool you are. so for what it's worth...you're cool...your blog is a blast and i hope you keep it up. melanie
ps in case you want to know just how cool you are...you can check out mondays post on thespacebetweenmsandmrs
pps i am not sure if you will even get this as i am still a blog tard.
I just can't wait my energy on wondering where blogging is going ~ so I'm going to enjoy the good ride while it lasts. The top 10 (which include Y-O-U) that I 'jones' for if not read on a daily basis. Don't stop. In fact, write a freakin' book already.
I'm also a little freaked out about how many blogs are shutting down. I have half a mind to go and drag Decorno back to her keyboard kicking and screaming. But you know, even when you think you have "nothing to post about," you still kill it. That's why we all heart you.
you're cool & i love this blog-
I wish you were my neighbor & if you were we'd go eat sandwiches or doughnuts and talk about the other neighbors, though I eat neither sandwiches nor doughnuts. but I would bring some tums & that'd be cool too.
I think lonely people read blogs and feel like they have a friend. & if just a few of those people feel as though they have someone to relate to, it's a meaningful thing.
Most of the blogs I read are plant blogs,i.e. The Fruit Blog- the nerd in me loves nerd things, but there's something fabulous about those crazy circus freak pics you post and how you drop the f-bomb in random spots; i can envision you dropping it in school gatherings among conservative moms without blinking, and that makes me happy.
Keep up the good work :D!
I love your blog and have been reading it for... um, three years! Seriously. I just love the way you write, everything is so relatable and authentic. It makes me happy.
I completely understand the feeling of "why?" relating to the blogging world. There are a lot of people out there. But, your blog is one of the best, and I love reading it. So, thanks.
xx
Kelly
I have never commented but I learned about your blog from a comment by Megan on The Skirted Roundtable (their podcast about blogger jealousy) and she mentioned being jealous of your writing skill. So I thought I'd check you out. OMG - you are so effing hilarious! I LOVE reading your posts...what a talent. My kind of humor! Please don't stop! You're awesome!
Mary
I just found your blog and found like I've met a new friend. I'm excited to read upcoming posts and your archives. I hope you'll be around for a long while!
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