Is blogging dead?
written by Julie R. Neidlinger 21 comments link this postAs a society that needs to adjust its Ritalin IV every three seconds if we remember to pay attention and do it, we have to periodically ask if something is dead.
Are newspapers dead?
Are movies dead?
Is the media as we know it dead?
Is Elvis dead?
Is YouTube dead?
Is dead dead?
Is blogging dead?
My friend and I, we both in the habit of pithy responses, are debating this supposed turn towards social networking (which I view as an annoyance) sites versus the possibly gangrenous blogging movement. Let's have a look.
Friend: Any chance you'd sent your blog preferences so that I can read the entire post in google reader? Or any reason why you have it set so I have to click on the post title and go directly to your page?
Me: (Never satisfied, are you?) Because that way I get hits on my little hit counter. Deep inside, I'm a bean counter. Not the answer you were looking for?
Friend: Huh. I see. Are you on Facebook?
Me: I refuse to lower myself to: Facebook, MySpace, Friendster, etc. It's bad enough that my sister1 got me to sign up for BeBo and something called Multiply. No sir. No Facebook. I have pride.
Friend: Why are you rejecting? (http://tametheweb.com/2007/07/is_blogging_dead.html) Believe?
Me: I'm rejecting because on the two social network sites that I'm on (the two I mentioned) I get requests to be friends with chicks that are wearing their underwear and smashing their boobs together for full effect.
Really, it's annoying.
"No, Cassandra, I don't want to be your 'friend'."
I prefer the elitist method of blogging on my own web host and moderating comments. It's so much purer. Plus, after five years of steady blogging, I get a couple hundred hits a day, and emails from all kinds of people that comment on stuff. It's like social networking, except without Cassandra and her lacy panties.2
Friend: Not me. Nosiree. I have a Facebook account. Not exactly sure what I'm supposed to do with it... but I've got one. I check my non-friends every day. It's like reliving high-school. What is BeBo?
Me: I don't really know what BeBo is, but I have an account, by golly!
Friend: Wow. I'm impressed. That's the ultimate of cool. So if there are four types of "Adoption Types" which one are you:
- Innovators
- Early Adopters
- Late Adopters
- Laggards
Friend: As per an earlier email, perhaps you'd like to join. (http://evillinktofacebooktoseefriend'sprofile)
Me: Surely you jest. You temptress.
Friend: So I take it you don't twitter either.
Me: We do have a lot of bird feeders. That's about the only answer I can come up with.
Friend: Funny. I don't understand the twitter thing. I barely understand the facebook thing, but whatever.
Twitter just... I just don't get it. Why would anybody care where others are? Why would anybody want to tell others where they are all the time?
Me: Because some people are pathetic.
I don't much care where my neighbors3 are. Why would I care where "Brucey" is, and what he's doing?
It's bad enough to have to suffer through benign chit-chat of people you know, much less some guy named "lazycoder" talking about his presentation for tomorrow. I don't pay for DSL to be bored out of my mind with that garbage.
For example, "Clintus" is on Twitter right now, and states: "I don't know what to do."
I don't think Twitter will be able to help Clintus.
1'Twas meant as a light bit of ribbing, sis. ;-)
2I regret the Google hits this will bring to my site.
3But I do love my neighbor as myself.
Labels: blogging, facebook, friends, humor, internet
Copyright (c) Julie R. Neidlinger 7/10/2007 12:00:00 AM
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21 Comments:
Actually, I like Facebook. It has a great many plugins that are fun to use. Myspace, on the other hand, sucks.
By 
Will, at
9/7/07 23:57
1. I have been meaning to complain about the feed as well. bloglines gets a bit more than the title, but not much.
2. I am so disappointed that you used an emonicon :(
3. What's next? LOL? LMAO? ROTFMAO?
4. Emonicons must die.
5. Especially smilies.
6. Are social network sites dead?
7. Am I dead because of excessive whining?
By 
David Cho, at
10/7/07 02:47
OK, this comment is probably not what you thought your post would have engendered. Blogging and all forms of internet information and opinionation is not dead or dying. Should the Lord tarry it will completely blanket the educated world with the machinations of man's seratonin cesspool.
Take all truth, add partial truth, add total error, place them in a pot and stir until there are no discernable differences, place them in a communicational kaleidoscope, and present the pretty colors to eager listeners.
Bloggers are just the ameba in this evolution, it continues to divide many times daily. Without absolute truth, everyone's opinion will become truth. Those with great energy and literary prowess will prove the Darwinian model, as they are doing already.
Isn't it amazing how some posts can elicit such different responses? I don't know, maybe it's that the electron solar system within my brain have aligned themselves. (Jupiter aligned with Mars and all that) By the way MOST of the references like "Facebook" went totally over my head.
By Henry (Rick) Frueh, at
10/7/07 09:43
See. Another feels the same as I.
Your public has spoken.
By Sarah Regan Snavely, at
10/7/07 09:48
You're right, Sarah.
I should've avoided the use of the emoticon.
The public has spoken.
>;-)
By Julie, at
10/7/07 09:51
Out of true masochism, I decided to try to find as many such social networking sites as I could.
The list below contain sites I've been asked, at some point, to join due to friends wanting me to see their profile. The problem is, I don't want to join all these, and then get a bunch of spam and crap. If I don't join, however, I get emails either from the friends wondering why I didn't, or from the site itself saying "You didn't join! You don't want your friend to feel badly, do you?"
Like I need the guilt.
I'll join for family. That's about it. It's all that joining and signing up and spam and guilt that makes me not like social networking sites. That, and the drama over "friend lists" that some people get wrapped up in.
1. BeBo
2. Multiply
3. Twitter
4. My Space
5. Live Journal
6. 43 Things
7. Facebook
8. Tagged
9. You Tube
10. Flickr
11. Friendster
By Julie, at
10/7/07 12:55
I guess I misspelled emoticon. I'd always thought it was emonicon with an "n" as in emotionicon.
Sorry.
Sarah's not the one who took you to task on your use of the emoticon.
By David Cho, at
10/7/07 15:46
No, she didn't. But, being the good friend I am, I decided to blame her anyway.
I'm terrible that way.
By Julie, at
10/7/07 20:17
Juls, one more for you list, Frappr. You did have one of those before the hassle.
By Jacqui, at
10/7/07 21:42
I'm confused again.
One other thing: Your hit counter.
I find myself nervously visiting your blog several times after submitting a comment just to see if you have approved it.
Now it makes sense. My fears and insecurities both real and perceived are now measured by your hit counter.
In the future, I will pay only ONE visit not just to read your new entry, but also check on the status of my previously submitted comment so as to kill two birds with one stone. Say goodbye to inflated hits.
By David Cho, at
10/7/07 23:23
But I want inflated hits. It makes me feel good about myself.
Note: I know people check to see if their comments made it. Sometimes I'm gone for the day and away from the computer -- I know, I know, amazing! -- and I can't get to them right away. Really, I publish most everything. I do. You'd have to have left a really awful comment, or been borderline spame or hit-grabbing, to not be published.
By Julie, at
11/7/07 00:00
"Social networking"? If you want to communicate with me, send an email to the address hidden a couple of places on m blog. If I want you to communicate with me, you probably already have my genuine for real home email. If you really are my friend, you have my phone number. Just call me. How hard is that? If you've read this grouchy comment and still want to contact me, you're either crazy, or you're my wife. Wait--my wife is crazy.
By ThirstyDavid, at
11/7/07 19:05
Todd has another site I'd not heard of: Virb.
By Julie, at
11/7/07 23:05
So Julie, what do you think of Virb? Is it any better (or worse) than your aforementioned sites?
So is it hit-grabbing to tell all your readers about the fascinating, intriguing and enlightening features from another, well-written, sleekly designed blog?
I sure hope not.
By Todd, at
12/7/07 11:28
Virb annoys me because it seems to be a misspelling of "verb."
If it isn't intended as such, I'm sure I can find another reason it annoys me.
Frankly, though, nothing can be as bad as MySpace. The visual (and audio) horrors that assault a person who stumbles onto an account there can scarcely be described with words.
Go ahead. Slavishly promote your own web site with links in my comments section. "I don't mind."
By Julie, at
12/7/07 11:33
Here are some more sites I've been made aware of via email, in which I was informed that these kinds of sites are the wave of the future.*
1. Pownce
2. Twitter (mentioned above)
3. Jaiku
*If these are the wave of the future, then I will never leave the past! "I'll wave to this future, all right, but not with all fingers," she says, grumpy and curmudgeon-like.
By Julie, at
30/7/07 12:32
And to just let everyone know, my friend from the post has been sending me invites to Facebook and LinkedIn.
My response has been muted to these invitations and requests:
"What kind of emotional vandalism are you trying to do, here? You know I don't have a Facebook account. Now Julie must decide."
and
"Why are you doing this to me? Why?"
By Julie, at
30/7/07 12:35
Here's another one: Quechup.com
By , at
1/9/07 19:33
Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
I'm not going to say where, but...I've caved. I started getting blasted invites out of the woodwork since this post and...I caved.
I'm not going to point you to the place I have these account profiles all listed...but they are, indeed, listed. Somewhere.
And shamefully.
What's worse is that, apparently, I've had a Friendster account since 2003. I had no idea.
By Julie R. Neidlinger, at
4/9/07 10:59
You are vindicated.
By , at
6/9/07 17:15
Here's a big list of social networking sites.
By , at
11/9/07 18:13
