My friend Amy has just returned to blogging after a some time away and posed the question to FB friends, "... is there a fancy trick to getting more people to follow your blog these days?" The answers varied from you need to crosspost everything, everywhere to my grumpy observation "blogging is dead".
Most mornings Tom and I chat about life over coffee for an hour or so before heading out on a walk through our woods. I know. We do live a charmed life. And this morning I mentioned Amy's dilemma as well as my pessimistic view. We discussed how the internet has changed from when we first started our webdesign/marketing company back in the mid-90s. In our defense we did fall short of, "well in MY (our) day...!!" But we toed that line. Closely.
What was the catalyst?
When did we move from (beyond??) making solid personal connections to clicking that ubiquitous "Like" button as our sole means of affirmation?
We mused whether Facebook was at fault, as so many seem to think, shortening the collective consciousness to nanoseconds or 144 characters. Or that mobile technology has made it virtually impossible to do much beyond read, nod, click Like and move on. Pretty hard to write a thoughtful response on that teensy-weensy keyboard. Harder still if you have to pay by the letter!
And I felt sad. Because I have made so very many authentic, strong, meaningful connections "out here". Ones I never could have made in Real Life. Or over 144 characters. And so many people won't have that opportunity. Or think that blogging is synonymous with making money or branding yourself or creating hype ... self-promotional marketing. And it can be so much more than that, dare I say IS more than that.
I'll leave you with this very poignant, very hopeful quote from Hugh MacLeod of Gapingvoid.com.
And if it isn't obvious by this point, I'd love for you to comment below ... about this ... about that ... about anything. Just. Say. Hi. I'm here. :)
