A Blog's Death
I have little expertise in this area, but it appears to me that the great majority of blogs begin with a spate of flurried posts, and then quickly die unexplained and unexpected deaths.
Why is this, I wonder?
Allow me to humbly posit a few theories on the subject.
1) The New Technology Phenomenon
People like new things. Like prepubescent raccoons, we like to tinker with things for a while and then leave them be when they lose their sparkle. Blogs, and the web in general, are no different. Major technological advances are probably discovered by about 3% of the population. The rest of us just tag along and use the newfound technology to post pictures of ourselves jumping out of windows on YouTube.
I shudder when I think of all the iPods laying around that haven't been used for months, because of exactly this same principle. We are truly the ADD generation. Why is reality TV so popular- because it always changes. If there was a TV show that simply showed random 20-second clips of anything and everything, it would never go off the air. TV execs, take note.
For these people, blogs are never a long-term commitment. Soon they move on to more exotic things to try, like skydiving and crack cocaine. Just kidding- nobody skydives.
2) Sense of Isolation
I suppose, out there somewhere, is a blog that contains a breathtaking truth. Yet the blogger never received a visitor, and the truth still sits out there, waiting to be found.
I'll get on a soapbox about visitor and link whoring all day long, but the truth is that you need at least a few regular visitors each day to give a damn. Without the interaction of others, there's no difference between this whole fiasco and a journal/diary. Or a stick and a cave wall.
Of course, said threshold is relative- some are happy with a few hits and others have visions of delusional grandeur. It is those who are self-assured that their blog will lead to stardom and invites to Paris Hilton parties that are doomed at the start.
So there are those, for whatever reasons, never generate enough feedback and give up out of desperation.
3) Lack of Original Material
I wouldn't even begin to guess, but there are a LOT of blogs out there. They all can't have original material. So the neophyte blogger, having a few good ideas to share, runs into a cognitive stalemate. Faced with either the choice of blogging about things no one wants to read in a bland way or simply walking away, many choose the more noble path.
Of course, there are those who steadfastly refuse to die, and post eighty-four pictures of their pet tortoise. These are the unfortunate ones. They are already dead, yet they do not know it. Only their online shells prance around for the mocking world to see.
They are the jesters of the internet court.
Of course, the problem is aggravated by the fact that the average human has not been instilled with a love of diction, punctuation, or accuracy in writing. In normal life, writing is simply not a prized skill. The meaning is still somewhat important, but the craft of encapsulating it in a presentable skein has largely been lost. Thus it is a frustrating experience to struggle with the written word. Blogs that are not fun to update and simply not updated.
Why is this, I wonder?
Allow me to humbly posit a few theories on the subject.
1) The New Technology Phenomenon
People like new things. Like prepubescent raccoons, we like to tinker with things for a while and then leave them be when they lose their sparkle. Blogs, and the web in general, are no different. Major technological advances are probably discovered by about 3% of the population. The rest of us just tag along and use the newfound technology to post pictures of ourselves jumping out of windows on YouTube.
I shudder when I think of all the iPods laying around that haven't been used for months, because of exactly this same principle. We are truly the ADD generation. Why is reality TV so popular- because it always changes. If there was a TV show that simply showed random 20-second clips of anything and everything, it would never go off the air. TV execs, take note.
For these people, blogs are never a long-term commitment. Soon they move on to more exotic things to try, like skydiving and crack cocaine. Just kidding- nobody skydives.
2) Sense of Isolation
I suppose, out there somewhere, is a blog that contains a breathtaking truth. Yet the blogger never received a visitor, and the truth still sits out there, waiting to be found.
I'll get on a soapbox about visitor and link whoring all day long, but the truth is that you need at least a few regular visitors each day to give a damn. Without the interaction of others, there's no difference between this whole fiasco and a journal/diary. Or a stick and a cave wall.
Of course, said threshold is relative- some are happy with a few hits and others have visions of delusional grandeur. It is those who are self-assured that their blog will lead to stardom and invites to Paris Hilton parties that are doomed at the start.
So there are those, for whatever reasons, never generate enough feedback and give up out of desperation.
3) Lack of Original Material
I wouldn't even begin to guess, but there are a LOT of blogs out there. They all can't have original material. So the neophyte blogger, having a few good ideas to share, runs into a cognitive stalemate. Faced with either the choice of blogging about things no one wants to read in a bland way or simply walking away, many choose the more noble path.
Of course, there are those who steadfastly refuse to die, and post eighty-four pictures of their pet tortoise. These are the unfortunate ones. They are already dead, yet they do not know it. Only their online shells prance around for the mocking world to see.
They are the jesters of the internet court.
Of course, the problem is aggravated by the fact that the average human has not been instilled with a love of diction, punctuation, or accuracy in writing. In normal life, writing is simply not a prized skill. The meaning is still somewhat important, but the craft of encapsulating it in a presentable skein has largely been lost. Thus it is a frustrating experience to struggle with the written word. Blogs that are not fun to update and simply not updated.
posted by Yorick at 6:54 PM
1 Comments:
I think my blog (and how this topic applies to me)is a mixture of 80% #3, 15% #1, and 5% #2. Like a good manure of sorts. (That would probably be a bad manure, but anyway). I personally struggle with topics to write about because I want my blog to be about debate but there are only so many things to debate about and quiet honestly I don't like to argue with people and sometimes that is just what it becomes. I also have a person whom I debate with consistently at work that blogs and reads blogs but will read something and come in my office and debate and not put it on the blog (can you sense my frustration). I come to this blog because it has a symmetry, but not too much; and it is interesting, but not so much to suck me into not being able to carry on with everyday activities like a crack-whore or Big Brother subscriber is dibilitated; and its original (no pressure now Yorick) unlike many other blogs, mine included.
Anyway, I ramble on to clog someone else's blog with a blog in my heart that is confused, loosing its shimmer and with slight but present feelings of "I could make it big" (I don't care about Paris Hilton but Kirsten Dunst we might have a different story)
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