The Clinical Cases and Images blog picked up on my recent post named "The Pressure of Posting." They raise the question of whether blogging in general has kind of become passe and yesterday's news. With so many different ways to express yourself like Twitter (guilty of being on too much), Facebook, and other social networking sites, has the blog become kind of ancient?
In the world of podcasting (of which I would call myself a very minor player), there is a term called "Podfading." It is a situation in which a podcast either becomes more and more infrequent or just stops abruptly - thereby leaving the audience not quite knowing what to do. A definitely parallel can be made with blogs, video blogging, or any other new media product.
In applying all of this to me (since this is my blog, you know), I guess a hobby or a project like this - something that you think about almost every day - has a cycle of increased interest and decreased interest. In what I call "the old media world" (meaning everything not considered new media), either your career is considered rocketing to the top or fading back to the oblivion where you came from. The main stream media loves to build people up, tear them down, hype up the comeback, and tear them down again. One day you're the best thing since sliced bread and tomorrow you're a has-been hanging on to the past.
For me, I sometimes have to ask myself, what is the core of all of this? I don't blog to make money. I do not seek sponsorship for any of the new media stuff that I do. Some people do, and I don't begrudge them for that. I write, or record audio, or shoot video, just for the joy of doing it. And, I guess, there are times when I'm not as interested and other times when I am very interested. But, just like life, I have to take the good with the bad.
At least for this second, I don't see myself going anywhere. I guess I just have to keep challenging myself in this world of new media. And, I encourage all of you out there to do the same. If you have a blog, consider recording some audio and make a podcast. For those of you with that, consider shooting some video and express yourself that way. Don't know what Twitter or Facebook are? Check them out - you may actually like it.
Hmmm. Maybe I will talk about some of this stuff on the show this week. Doesn't hurt to be introspective every once in a while...
1 comment:
I disagree. Blogging has become just another word for a website that is in a daily post type format, but not necessarily limited to that. More than merely journals, some blogs are far superior to websites; ease of page creation, widget installment, inter-connected design, and achieve higher search engine rankings far quicker than a traditional website does. If anything, the latest blog software, (Wordpress, Blogger, etc.) are the models for what all websites will be.
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