I was reading the other day that 96% of all weblogs have not been updated in the last four months. Certainly the bloggers in my little universe have become much quieter of late. Even me.
So what happened?
When I first got access to the internet, in the form of bulletin boards, back in 1991, I spent time trading quips with strangers. Then I got the full internet in 1995, the whole experience, and I spent time writing poetry with strangers. I went on to write a Diaryland diary and traded comments back and forth with some other Diarylanders. When I shut down my Diaryland diary and moved to Blogspot, I got some new blog friends (Ed and Delia, also people I had never met) and we commented on each others' blogs. As time went by, more people that I knew in my (I hesitate to call it real) life were reading my weblog.
Then I joined Facebook. I have I think 80 some-odd friends there, mostly people who I either see in the street or have been around in person for some period of time in my life. (Except Delia and two people who added me thinking I'm the Kate who used to live here but is now in Ottawa).
Kirsten told me the other day that one of her teachers has read my weblog from start to finish.
Ed, before he shut down his wonderful blog, talked about the amount of editing and censoring he had to do.
The reason I shut down my Diaryland diary was that I was having marital difficulties while I was writing it, and I became uneasy that so much of my ballistic psyche was on the net. So many of my complaints and sarcasm. And since Miguel never read it, it was pretty one-sided. I was playing it for the story value. Yeah, exaggerating the angst. And re-reading it makes me re-feel all those jagged emotions and self-pity. And I don't like it.
I can't talk about my work in my blog. Even if I were to change everybody's names and tweak the situations, I worry that someone would find out who and where I was, and the powers-that-be would make an example of me.
And so, if I had to say why I think people aren't updating their blogs, I would go for: one in eleven minutes spent on the internet now is on a social networking site. The internet is becoming more about the people you know than the people you don't know. And for the people you know, you have to edit. You can't complain about them. Can't tell the work stories. Can't exaggerate. And if you can't fit it into a status line, chances are your readership will tire and move on to look at cottage pictures and videos of dachshund-that-plays-fetch-with-himself.
anyway.
I'm dieting. Trying to lose the last ten pounds that the exercise isn't budging. I gotta say, I haven't yet developed a taste for whole-wheat pasta, and yogurt with Splenda still makes my stomach hurt. Although if I don't think too hard about it, plain oatmeal with skim milk and strawberries is not too too bad.
Because, to motivate myself, I need to be able to drag my body through the trek to Everest. I've stopped eating sugar altogether and that's been the hardest thing so far.
