(Health warning: bit of a rant coming up. Probably not very fair or well-balanced.)
Yes, I've got a Facebook page. But it's a bloody nuisance. It's full of pleasant but mundane stuff, or people sharing political stuff most of which is preaching to the converted, But it's quick and easy.
When blogging really got going, even by the time I started my first blog ("Meditation and Mortality") people took the trouble to add comments, and some really valuable conversations, arguments, affirmations and denials could develop. It helped me keep on writing.
Now, no-one seems to comment much on blogs. Not just this one.
Take, for example, the delightful "Windermere Diaries," simply and beautifully-written daily accounts of the life of a married couple of farmer/taxi-drivers in the Lake District. It's full of the profundity of ordinary daily life, of gentle humour, realism and acceptance. It's generous and ordinary. You don't have to read it every day, but it's there for you when you want it.
http://windermerediaries.com/2016/03/predictable/
Do people comment on it? Well, her Mum did recently. And occasionally she gets a comment. Yet she's got literally hundreds of regular readers.
Or take "The Hearth of Mopsus," if you want to know what a thoughtful, Goth-obsessed open-minded but very devout C of E vicar is up to. Again, hardly ever a comment.
http://hearthofmopsus.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/a-fantasy-of-end.html
My guess is that Facebook has done this. We'd rather tell someone about an article in the papers, urge them to sign an on-line petition or tell the world that we've just had a nice walk, photo attached. We want to reassure ourselves with little gestures from like-minded people rather than engage with otherness. Please Like Me (so I know I exist.)
I'm even invited to "Like" South-West Trains. Why would I do that?
Sod Facebook, we should use blogs to think and write just a little more lengthily and thoughtfully. and comment on what people have written. I want to know what people have to say, not just what papers they read and what they had for tea.
3 comments:
OK this looks a bit self-righteous, sorry. I'm as bad as anyone, urging people to sign this or that, but I try not to tell people what I had for tea etc, because I can't do that stuff with the wit and wisdom of "Windermere Diaries." (See today's entry "Young People" for an excellent example.)
Now here's a thought: perhaps some of us follow blogs and are impressed - indeed, even awed - by them. And these same some of us know we cannot in any way match that level of thoughtfulness in our own comments. The fear of writing drivel!
It doesn't mean we aren't reading you, thinking about what you are saying, and wondering if you are ok when there is a gap in your posts.
It must be very hard to write into the void - but please don't stop.
Dear Free Range, how very kind of you. Thank you. That's the sort of encouragement a blogger needs, not just the discussions and arguments.
Never let a fear of writing drivel stop you from further comments, it's never hindered me! Anyway, I'm absolutely certain that you don't write drivel...
I'm very pleased to know you cast an eye over my stuff, and I'm grateful that you do so.
Fear not, I'll press on. It's not only good to know that I'm being read, it also, more selfishly, enables me to work out a few thoughts and feelings as I write.
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