Blogging / Journalling R.I.P.

[scott]

When I started my online journal, it was just called an online journal, or sometimes online diary. Then it became blogging. Then it seemed like everyone was doing it. These days though, I don't know, the personal blog - meaning someone writing about herself with no product to sell, no celebrity, no strict themes (i.e. no gaming blogs, tech blogs, celebrity blogs, etc), no corporate backing - seems more of a rarity. Maybe it's just because the group I "grew up with" on the net has mostly moved past it or stopped writing. It just seems like there's less to read and less reading, as well. People want information, not TMI these days. Maybe it's a younger person thing. I don't know.

Does anyone else get the impression that blogging is passe again, or am I just looking in the wrong places?

[Jessica]

It's about good food! Recipes, reviews, kitchen gadgets...
Yum-O-Rama

I guess it's kind of like food journalling. . .I think for me food has so many different memories / celebrations. Like how I loved cauliflower as a kid. Or the cakes that my aunt would smuggle from Singapore.

[Zubyre Parvez]

i think blogging has been taken over by businesses increasingly because blogging is more convenient than the outbound networking and telesales and what not. i think that's the reason. i started a blog and i try to develop both individual and collective aspects. theres a thing now where theres multiple bloggers for one blog say.

[markstar]

I think really good reading has always been rare. To me there are two types of journalers: people who lead interesting lives that they can blog about, and people who are just darn good writers. Scott, I think you fall into both categories because of your job and your cynical writing style. Cami Chan strikes me as a very good writer who could make something as mundane as grocery shopping interesting.

There are probably other contributing factors, like professions that look down on blogging (how many people have been let go of their jobs because their bosses found their blog?), difficulty in staying truly anonymous (stalker issues), and like you said people "just moving on."

I enjoyed reading the occasional blog at work while taking breaks, but now lots of them are blocked. Plus I don't have a lot of time to either write or read anyway at home. Plus my life is boring as hell!

[scott]

I have to confess ... I think my original hospital job (from 1999 to 2004) let me go because of my blog, back five years ago. They said it was because I didn't fill out some paperwork (which I did neglect because I signed up as a doctor, not to be a secretary) and they gave me six months notice. But I'm pretty sure I just made the top brass nervous and that was their excuse. It was really stupid of me to let coworkers know about my site but back then I felt like I was the ONLY doctor with an online journal.

I found a much better paying job after I left that one, so it worked out for the better actually.

I never mentioned this in my journal because I didn't want new employers to find out. But I can mention it here because only about 6 people will ever read this, haha.

[markstar]

Oops, I hope i didn't touch on a subject about which you are bitter... doesn't look like it though; you came out on top in the end (in bed haha). But I hope this topic isn't an omen or anything, keep writing and be that last bastion of true journaling if you have to. Soldier on.

[scott]

No, I'm not bitter. It feels good to confess it. That part of my past wouldn't affect my new job anyways.

[Randomguru]

i have been getting that impression for awhile... plus the fact that i'm cleaning up the RBJ directory and getting rid of blogs/journals that have been abandoned (some for years) or the links simply going nowhere.

the truth is...

the big social networking sites like facebook, myspace, twitter, flickr, etc... are the big cyber kingdoms where every flocks to nowadays.

i lament because directory sites such as RBJ and even Diarist.net seem passe and unimportant nowadays.

i still find myself blogging more than ever, though. and sometimes i'll crank out 3-4 posts in a day. though i admit that i've been blogging for extra money. i mean, if your going to blog or write, why not get paid for it too.

but i still write about my personal experiences. though i don't get deeply personal because i know that family and co-workers read my site nowadays. and back when we write in our "online journals and diaries", myself especially, i didn't think anyone read it anyways....

now i know a lot of people read my site that i know in real life because they will reference something in conversation that they could've only known, had they read my blog!

myself, i'll continue to write and blog frequently, though my site is evolving into something more, only because i tend to use it as a multi-purpose site for business and personal stuff...

[aemii]

I get the same impression re: blogging nowadays - kind of sad really. It's as disconcerting as waking up in the middle of the night disorientated.. except it's worse because you know that times have really changed. Everything nowadays seems to run along the lines of "instant" and "now." For goodness sakes, every tom dick and harry now has a blog - even newspapers have "blogs." Seems like any webpage online with a date attached to a paragraph is labeled as a blog. Very frustrating to run into people that think that a list of twitter or facebook updates constitutes as "blogging" urgh. What happened to good ol' fashioned livejournals, blogspots and the likes? =(

That being said, I've also been slacking on the blogging front. Not quite sure what changed - it's almost like I've established a new threshold, a higher one where it takes a lot more to shake and rattle me enough to warrant a rant on my blog... an unintended side-effect of constant whinges?

[Barron]

There was a good discussion on This Week in Google the other day about blogging, and they were saying that it is still important in at least one aspect: you retain control over the content and the rights to ownership. If you do all of your posting on social media sites, you give up copyright. Not sure the technicalities of this, but it would seem to make sense.

I myself still like to read blogs, but I almost always read their RSS feeds via Google Reader. It's just a lot more convenient.

[Michael Erana]

Hmmm. I dunno if its passe as much as my time and effort are being focused in other directions. I still post from time to time on my blog but it is infrequent. In fact, I've found that some of my regular readers (I know, right???) are finding me on Facebook now and following me that way. Twitter is still to 'cutesy' for me and I tend to use FB Mobile from my Blackberry instead.

[Chairman Mao]

anyone been going to the old forums? on a whim, i went on over there and i was able to login, but not much activity.

[Manny M]

Doesn't look like anyone is going to any RBJ forums, old or new. I've lurked but haven't posted because I've dealt with personal issues over the past year.

I haven't been blogging regularly, either. I still like to write, but I've had to prioritize things, and blogging has taken a back seat. I have to confess that my online activity on Facebook has been flourishing. Since I see a lot of RBJ folks on FB, I don't miss RBJ as much as I probably should. Sorry, Carlos.