Is Blogging Dead?

More and more, we wonder if there is some major shift afoot in the blogging world. It seems that there are fewer and fewer posts from our regular circle of neighbors -- as if everyone has become overwhelmed with life, or perhaps has run out of things to say, or perhaps people just wandered off to engage in other forms of on-line community.

Maybe, all those that used to hang out here, making keyword searches, and pushing our numbers up, have decided that life is better and more interesting on Fetlife or Twitter or Facebook or Ning. Definitely, interacting on all of those venues is way different than our nice, normally sedate little blog.

Really. Nothing exciting happens here most days. We live and love and work and take care of our various responsibilities. We seem to have a habit of being civil with those we come in contact with (mostly), and so the increasingly common practice of working to incite battles and flame wars is difficult for us to understand.

Twitter seems inane. Fetlife goes by too quickly and there is far too much mean spirited nonsense. I tend to keep this part of my life separate from my Facebook personna -- where I engage with my children, my cousins, and my colleagues. And Ning? It seems the same only different, perhaps a bit more edgy, but ultimately dull -- how many pussys and cocks can a person look at and still get a charge?

I notice that there is some online discussion of whether the blog is a dead medium; following in the same course as the once ubiquitous listserv. If not dead, perhaps moribund? Old fashioned and outdated? No longer "hawt?" Maybe so...

But here's the thing -- I like this place. It has come to be "mine." I've left my stamp all over it. It documents so many roads traveled, so many lessons learned, so many insights gained. Through all of that, there have been friends made here, and they are people who are steadfast and thoughtful. They don't follow along here like worshippers at some exotic shrine; they participate with kindness and gentleness and honesty. Whatever I or we might come to need, I believe that we've made friends "out there" who would do their level best to take care of it. I have often thought of this place as akin to an online living room; a place where good neighbors gather to partake of one another's lives. Truly, as things have shifted in these last days, I am finding that I have a deep appreciation for those who drop by here and leave a word now and then.

Perhaps the days of multiple hundreds of hits have come and gone. Perhaps the days when there was hardly enough time to read all the new posts around the circle are at an end. I am guessing that we've grown up together in these years. That feels just fine to me. I am so glad for the good neighbors who share this environment with us. So, tonight, here's a thank you for all the friends and neighbors we've gained over these many years.

swan