How does one start blogging? Why does one continue?
There are a few stalwart blogs active these days, and I must look at a dozen of them almost daily.
I
started blogging because I like sharing photos and stories about
events/people/places. I like that I can do it on my own time.
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| Japanese dogwood |
As
my COPD and Bronchiectasis has progressed, I'm required to sit and use a
nebulizer to inhale a couple of medicines which help me cough out the
sticky phlegm which settles in the far reaches of my lungs. So I've got
a laptop and can type while clinching the little mouthpiece and doing
the half hour of breathing. What do I do then? I read lots of things on
the internet, and also load my blog pages.
That's at
least twice a day. Ancestor sleuthing is one of my favorite pursuits.
My 3 family trees still have a lot of people I haven't discovered yet. I'm now
enjoying the brothers and sisters of people in my direct line, the
great uncles and aunties. And looking at their lives not only gives me
hundreds of new cousins, I often find out facts about my direct
ancestors...so it's a win/win use of my time.
I
wish I didn't sit in front of a digital screen, nor that my family
would, as much as we do. Wishes are horses and we all would ride, said
the old rhyme. We don't need horses to get around any more, and maybe
we don't even sincerely have wishes either. We do have our vision
plugged into fantasies, games, words shared through texts, and trivia
which zooms into our devices.
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| This lovely tree is in the parking lot where I get my bi-weekly allergy shots |
I noticed several years ago
(maybe 6-8) that the blogs started having "memes" or a theme which
could be contributed to by other bloggers...and then found the joy of
commenting on others' blogs. I continue to share weekly blogs to my
favorites, as a challenge and an interest in the other folks who I've
gotten to know pretty well.
But the number of bloggers I follow is steadily declining.
We
used to have a Pottery Bloggers site, where other bloggers would not
only share pottery information, it would be gathered monthly so that
site would be the go-to place, organized by different topics. And then
at the end of the year, the administrator of the site would add up the
number of blogs each potter had had listed (simple algorithm) and become
one of the Top Pottery Bloggers of the year. My blog was coming in in
the teens each year. I was fine with others who posted daily about
pottery, since my posts are not always on that topic.
Then
came the burst of Facebook posts...and many bloggers would share their
blogs over there (myself included.) They were being seen by many more
people, if you consider the number of comments, "likes" and shares, which represented maybe a quarter of those who actually saw the post.
However, of that big group of people, maybe only a few would actually
click on the blog and go read it. I never knew, but figured it was like
most group surveys, something in the 10% or less area.
So
I still blog. And enjoy the few other bloggers who share comments with
me, going both ways. It's like a Facebook group (which I've also
enjoyed joining) where maybe these dozen people spend some time every
day listening (reading) each other's posts, and maybe commenting if they
are so moved.
Will I continue?
Will I write a book instead?
My
autobiography seemed like a good goal when I was younger, thinking of
all the juicy stuff I was doing in the 70s, and when I retired wouldn't
it be fun to write about it...but I've forgotten most of it. My many
journals have silly things recorded. And with the faster paced lives we
now lead, reading any book is a luxury compared to those digital
devices.
After all, I read most of the library books on a digital device already!
But
holding a nice physical book, reading and turning pages, I want to keep
doing, and help keep "bricks and mortar" libraries in business! Each of
us does need to work to do that!
Remember that people employed by organizations are being replaced by robots every day...and we need those people to be employed! They need to too of course.
