Link
I just read that article linked there. It's about some deud who quits blogging. Apparently, he's the founder of "personal blogging." Aka, writing a diary that everyone can read.
Anyhow, apparently he had a solid readership, by virtue of the fact that he was both prolific and consistent, and because he was on the scene at the beginning. But he walked away. And that article is at least somewhat about why and about what it means/requires to work in this medium.
It got me thinking, and it prompted me to write these words. One of the people mentioned in the article is William Gibson, the Science Fiction writer turned blogger. The article says that he "announced he would stop blogging in May 2003, telling Wired magazine that 'I do know from doing it that it's not something I can do when I'm actually working. Somehow the ecology of writing novels wouldn't be able to exist if I'm in daily contact.'"
And I thought that it was just me. It's weird, I don't actually blog a great deal. I mean, I put something up on one of my blogs most days, probably, but that's not what "blogging" means to me, I guess. Hence the title of this post. Note that it is free of the word "blog."
Connected media is a better term. Because that's what I do all day, in between panicked, procrastinated rushes to finish paying work; I engage in connected media. I email people. I surf. I put up links on linkfilter. I learn shitloads about all kinds of stuff. I post comments - I try to initiate a lot of conversations. I code html pages and upload them. I look at my webstats and make adjustments. And I try very hard to work my way to the top of the information pile, though I'm well aware that such efforts are doomed.
But it's harrowing. I'm sure a lot of you have this same experience. It is downright scary. My brain isn't good enough for this shit. You've got to be able to process so much information, and to multitask so well, and to stay on task with such vigorous discipline... Well, put it this way. It's very hard to get any real work done if you have an internet connection and know how to use it.
Of course the preceeding is reductive. I know that I value the learning I do immensely, and I consider it real work - absolutely. But I also know that important projects - like my novel - move very much more slowly than they ought to. And, really, I could get, in general, a hell of a lot more art done than I do. Sometimes, a whole day will be gone and I still won't have gotten through my morning starter activities.
And that's frightening power. Damn, though, eh? Powerful shit, this distraction box.
But I'm still wholly idealistic about it too. People who spend time online learn. The more time they spend online, the more they learn. They learn about skillsets and facts and shit, sure. But much more importantly, they learn to be good citizens. Because being a net head means letting go of your ego. There really aren't any big fish in this sea. The sea's too big, there are too many other fish. Sure there are some who get a lot of traffic, some who are famous. But I dunno. It seems to me that it's just traffic that sustains itself. Because I visit hundreds and hundreds of sites a day and while Daily Kos may be among them, I don't spend a minute longer there than I do at any other blog that I might happen to read on any given day.
And all in all, I gotta say that I find old head netziens to be just about the most reliably straight up folk anywhere. You gotta know how to communicate respectfully, directly and unpretentiously if you want to connect with people through text. The web forces you to learn how to do that. And that informs your offline life too.
At least it has with me.
So, I'm not really sure what the point of all this is, but... uh... Go Internet, YAY!
mr strauss
pop goes lethal
reject aesthetic relativism
