Monday, November 18, 2013

Monday Forum - a weariness in the bloggosphere?

Over at his place in Requiem, Neil announced his attention of withdrawing from commentary on current politics:

Friends, so depressing is all this and more in this dark time for Australian politics – not just beginning at the last election either – that I have decided to opt out of further commentary. This blog will become exactly what it says – a Commonplace Book of images, quotations, reviews, nostalgia and history, sometimes music, and sometimes recycled matter from my long back catalogue of blog posts.

marcellous commented in response:

I understand how you feel. I find myself taking pretty much the same approach, though maybe it is also because of the change in the temperature of the blog world (attention to current issues seems to have Twittified, a step I haven’t taken).

Neil responded:

It is also true that I am still sounding off on Facebook or even Twitter — or at the very least posting links to things I do want people to see.

Is it my imagination, or is there a sort of weariness in at least the Australian blogging world just at present? On a number of the blogs I follow, posting has declined in frequency. As marcellous notes, some have become twittified. Others like Neil or Helen Dale use Facebook extensively. Still others are using LinkedIn groups on the professional side instead of blogging.

Like my blogging colleagues, I use other platforms too, experimenting with different combinations. This takes time. For example, after I post, I put details of the post on my public Facebook page or on Twitter; I tend not to use Linkedin groups very much. All this takes time. Then there is the time involved in scanning feeds.

My personal Facebook page has become quite a useful resource, for there I find many of those who used to blog frequently. However, this is also a trap, for it leads me to post things there that once I would have put on the blog. Why a trap? There is a sort of sugar rush from the immediacy of interaction, but I am reaching very few and it's also distorting the main purpose of the page.

I know that many of those who read this blog read many others as well. What's your perception of the present state of the bloggosphere? Has it become weary? 

8 comments:

Scott Hastings said...

I do sense this but I think it is merely part of a broader weariness in the progressive sphere - those of us with new ideas of any description talk and talk and educate and inform but there is NO result because our politicians are so profoundly corrupt, so bent on taking this country backwards that the ideas just wither on the vine.

Evan said...

I do think that Twitter and Facebook robbed the blogosphere of immediacy. The problem is that your stuff on those (and other platforms) is owned by someone else). There are less updates, heads-up and link kinds of posts now.

And with the current lot of elected thugs basically going to ground there is little for the political bloggers to talk about. Those of us who would like to see Australia become a more equitable, generous, sustainable and beautiful place probably feel like we don't have much to do for the next almost three years. Perhaps interest will pick up when the Senate changes.

Jim Belshaw said...

Good afternoon, both. You raise an interesting point that I hadn't thought of. The loss does seem to be greatest on the 'progressive" side. I put progressive in inverted commas because i count myself as progressive, but not in the code way that word is sometimes used.

Rummuser said...

Yes and no. There are still some bloggers who are going strong and about an equal number tiring and dropping out. FB is a simpler substitute!

Jim Belshaw said...

That's interesting, Ramana. Facebook has what Evan called immediacy, but its actually not a substitute to blogging unless one's blogging focus is on immediate response and interaction among a much smaller group.

Not everyone is on FB. kvd is an example of this.

You may be right about the equal number tiring and entering. That's not clear to me, however.

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That's very nicely put, kvd. I at least promise to do better!