Sunday, October 06, 2019

On The Disappearing of Blogs

If you have been on the blogosphere long enough, one of the sadder things that happens is that eventually your favorite voices seem to go dark.

It is understandable, of course.  I suspect for 99% of us, we have other things that we actually do to make a living.  Blogging is an outlet, something that meets needs for those that want to write but never feel they can or those that need to write because they know no other way or those that feel they have something to offer the world through their lives and what they are doing with them.

I probably fall into the category of I write because I now know no other way - even after I figured out my career as a nascent author was not really going anywhere I continued to write anyway.  It is a good intellectual challenge and allows me to continue to keep bits of my own dreams alive and well in a period where they all too frequently feel as if they are falling into the chaos of real life.

I am always grateful to anyone who keeps a blog, no matter how irregularly.  It is a commitment one makes no matter what else is going on, no matter who reads, to keep putting something up.

But blogs are like our friends and families in real life:  they move away, they lose contact, sometimes they die.

One of my more favorite bloggers, Pioneer Preppy at The Small Hold, himself does not blog at all anymore.  To see his blog roll is, in many ways, to walk through an electronic graveyard.  So many voices which for one reason or another have chosen to go silent.

It happens here as well - if you look over to the right of the page, you will see some of my own friends that moved on or simply stopped posting.  Which is okay, of course - lives change, people change.  It just saddens me, the same way the passing of a friend or a favorite restaurant does: you will never (virtually) hear there voice or point of view again, see their world, hear events through their eyes.

This is not meant to be a melancholy post (although by this point, who knows), but I will try to end on a happy note:

1)  To those who have blogged but for whatever reason have chosen not to any long, thank you.  I miss your voice but am grateful for the time you shared your lives with us.

2) For those who continue to blog, thank you for your continuing dedication to something that is truly (in a lot of ways) a hobby.  You continue to inspire me with your regular (or irregular) dedication to posting.

Stay writing, my friends.

14 comments:

  1. Some of my best blogging friends have stopped blogging and it also means our online friendship has stopped as well. I think when people stop blogging, they tend to shy away from the internet altogether. It's a shame.

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  2. Oh man. PP ruled. He had a great outlook on life, he knew right from wrong and said so... and I loved how his animals always seemed to be in control. I laughed to read of him trying to work while his chickens arrogantly strutted underfoot as the looked for bugs in the soil he'd just tilled.

    I love your bloggers too. (I can't read Rain at the moment as I am on a diet and she is always cooking stuff that breaks my heart, HAR HAR HAR!!!). 5 Acres is awesome... and I seriously need to check out the others.

    I wonder how you guys do it. If I worked as hard as you all do I wouldn't have any time left over to blog at all...

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  3. It is, Rain. It is the hazard of the Interweb: we make friends that are far away, but the contact is completely based on the medium. It is not like people that you are likely to physically see.

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  4. Glen, PP's travails as he backed into having his chickens was hilarious. I knew precisely where he was going to end up even if he did not.

    As to writing so much - I cannot tell you why other than it is, at least for me, a burning need to communicate.

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  5. Not likely to see, but honestly, that's the way I like it! I'm such an anti-social hermit. I have no "real life" friends by choice because my anxiety can't handle the "forced" socialization, so the online friends I meet are very special to me. I feel closer to them than I ever felt with "real life" friends. When they disappear, it's a loss for me!

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  6. Yeah, I miss PP's adventures and comments, too. As for myself, I'm still trying to coordinate work and blogging... not mentioning the nonsense caused by the neighborly neighbors who still can't get over us coming from ... shhhhh.... c-a-l-i-f-o-r-n-i-a........ ha! whatever. Small town, small minds. Some have figured out that we're not demons and actually like us. There's more to the story but I won't embellish here.

    But I enjoy reading your blog and thank you for your contributions!
    ~hobo

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  7. I'm another who was sorry when PP quit blogging. His chicken stories were the best. I suppose sometimes life just gets in the way.

    Maybe it's more amazing that some people continue to blog faithfully. Like you, TB, I like writing. I like the challenge of trying to put an idea into words and communicate it clearly. I also find my blog is an excellent record of what we've done. We refer back to it often for that. And every now and then, I actually think I have something to say.

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  8. Anonymous7:48 AM

    I miss The Small Hold terribly. I was hoping he would post an update this summer so we'd know he was okay. Loved reading about his adventures. So inspiring...

    Diane

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  9. Rain, I am sure that makes it doubly hard for you. I have to admit, I have formed what I would consider solid friendships over the years online and when one of those folks disappears, it does hurt.

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  10. Thanks Hobo! Almost none of us get paid for this, so anytime any of us can write it is a great thing (that is one of the reasons I ended up going to a single day, write the week event: it is easier to schedule out). You are quite welcome.

    And I miss PP as well. Hope he is well.

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  11. Leigh, his chicken stories were hilarious. Having had chickens at one time, I can completely appreciate them.

    It is a record - yours is much better than mine of course, because you take far better pictures. I am dimly aware that somewhere buried in all of this morass of words is my change and (hopefully) growth as an individual.

    And yes, like you sometimes I even think I have something meaningful to say!

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  12. Diane, I was hoping so as well. At least one. Maybe it will be his Christmas present to us.

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  13. EagerGridlessBeaver7:03 AM

    ..I don't post ( or review blogs as much as I used to as you can tell by my comment date to post date comparison). Sad but true..many of my old blog post friends are gone and thier sites shuttered. I keep on because I like the historical aspect of the work we do but I find our posts and goings on to be repetetive so I don't wan to post the same things all the time.

    Change is the only constant!

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  14. EGB, I get it. Our blogs become a historical log of times and trains of thought. It is difficult to always post new things - I am sure I have repeated myself more than once - but at least for myself, I find this to be as much of an on-line journal and thought processing mechanism as a blog.

    Thanks for stopping by and keep on posting!

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