A couple of bloggers that I follow have announced that they are focusing more on their blogs again and less on their social networking via Facebook, etc. I find this interesting because I have been thinking the same thing, though I haven’t done a lot about it yet. The trend over the last several years has been to abandon your blog and blurt out nuggets of content in 140 characters or less. I’m happy to see that some are going against that grain.
Back in August I tried to blog via Google+, where I would write my blog entry on Google+ (and have it shared all over Google) and then it would be pushed to my blog here, which in turn would push it to Facebook and Twitter. It didn’t really work that well and when push came to shove, I wasn’t pleased with the set up. While I enjoy the interaction I have with others on Google+ (for the most part), I didn’t like the fact that the photos I posted or that my words weren’t actually living on *my* webspace, they were living on Google’s. And when it comes to Google I’m more Sybil-like than usual: I love the “freemium” services that Google provides and then I hate the fact that they’re ad-supported and being used for data mining purposes, so I go all hot and cold and I decided that it would just be best to use my webspace and then push my words out to other places. At least this way I still own the content.
There are times that I worry that this blog is a waste of bandwidth for all involved but then I rationalize its existence by saying that if you don’t want to visit, you don’t have to, so I just keep on doing what I’m doing. Some days I think about writing a blog under a pseudonym, where I’ll change the names to protect the innocent and everything, so I feel completely free to say what I’m thinking and feeling, but then I get lazy and just write it here. I don’t really censor my words on my blog; I think it’s safe to say that if you were to meet me in person you’d find that I’m like I represent myself to be here.
Maybe this blog thing will catch on big someday.
I still update mine about once a week. After 10.5 years it seems stupid to stop.
I think that’s one of the reasons that I keep going with my blog. It’s been going for so long, why stop now?
Happy holidays!
I keep coming back to the “feeling” that it’s my content, my diary, and not FB’s or Google’s or Twitter’s. Not like anything I post is really something that I’d want to copy-protect. But it is mine. Well, as “mine” as mine can be in a digital world. And I want it all in one place.
Here’s hoping I can be successful with giving up the social media, and not my blog.
And congratulations for doing the same.
I’ll have to admit that yesterday, after two beers at a mall restaurant, I felt compelled to update my Facebook status just because I thought I was being witty. After sobering up for the ride home, I began to ponder about the times I would write a witty blog entry. I need to do that again.
As far as content, I’m with you. I want control of my content. Not because I want to pull revenue with it or copyright it, but because it’s mine.