Sunday, June 7, 2009

All Blogged Up

Today’s New York Times had an article in it about blogs. I meant to save it, but of course it’s somewhere in the bin out front right now. A company tracked millions of blogs, and 95% of them had no activity within the last year. It seems that bloggers are choosing Twitter and other, more immediate, forms of cyber-expression. That’s like comparing apples and prix fixe menus. I love Twitter but it’s a snack, not a meal.

I remember reading books filled with nothing but correspondence. Back in the day, people used to write long and sometimes interesting letters to each other. Sure, they had no other way to communicate over distance, but it was still a lot of effort, and a lot of words.

Picture yourself sitting at a desk, pen in hand, covering more than one sheet of paper with your news and your thoughts, then sending it out with the knowledge that it won’t be read for days, maybe weeks, and even then it would only be seen by the person to whom it was addressed. This wasn’t that long ago, and it probably took about the same amount of time we spend watching one DVD—assuming we make it to the end of the DVD and don’t shut it off halfway. It takes less time to draft and publish a blog post, but people don’t do that either, apparently.

Then again, letters are small and can be burned, but the Internet is everywhere and forever. That’s daunting, granted, but come on, people! We’re tougher than that. Suck it up and get out there and post. Don’t be another statistic.

3 comments:

Ixtlilton said...

now I feel guilty that I haven't posted on my own blog in a while...I guess I'd better get to it.

Cheri Sicard said...

I've posted, even though I was traveling last week.

jan said...

no blogs, no posts.
no brains, no worries.