I’ve been thinking about all the bloggers out there in cyberspace tapping away at their keyboards, setting links, posting pictures, and expounding on things from the profound to the trivial.
Pretty much any topic you can think of has bloggers. There’s mommy bloggers, political bloggers, snowboarding bloggers, general “this is my life bloggers,” and—of course there are author bloggers.
What do you think is going to happen to all those words we’re sending into cyberspace? I have a mental picture of cyberspace collapsing on itself—kind of like a black hole—from the weight of all those words.
Do those stored words matter? Does anyone care? I mean, I know people care today. But will anyone care in a couple of years?
Will some future politico’s blog archives come back to haunt him/her someday? Will blog archives become a goldmine of information for future scholars? Somehow, I have a hard time imagining anthropologists of the future poring over blog entries the way they pore over hundred-year-old diaries and scraps of letters today. Will our blog posts matter in 2107?
Just a few deep thoughts for your Wednesday. . .
If you blog, how often do you post and what do you think will happen to all the blog posts in the future? If you read blogs—okay, you’re reading this one right now, so you qualify to answer, how many blogs do you read a week and do you ever read archives?
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I dreated a “Daily” folder in my Favorites and there are a number of blogs. Of course the Good Girls blog is the first one listed (ahem, waiting for the pat on the back, I am). Murderati is on there as well as a few others. Most are Literary Agency blogs.
I do go read archives if there is something there that relates to something I’m interested in. I think I just looked back in the Good Girls Archive for a blog that Luara did on press kits.
Fahrenheit 1172 The temperature at which all electronic files catch fire and burn…
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Of course you get a pat on the back, Will. We love it that you drop in so often. And I can certainly see going back to access information posts, like Laura’s press kit one.
So, 1172 is the danger zone. We’ll have to watch out for that.
by Sara
on October 17th, 2007 at 8:29 am
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Archives: not so much anymore. If it’s a really good, high-quality content blog, then yes. I’ve read the archives for JA Konrath and Erica Orloff, but that’s unusual.
I will sometimes click tags that interest me, if the blogger categorizes their posts. (A hundred blogs in my reader, at the very least …)
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JA Konrath does have a great blog.
by Sara
on October 17th, 2007 at 8:51 am
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I read blogs here, and some industry-oriented (I’m a professional data processor) - and some just because. Archives get read once in a while, but not often. I have written my own. although it languishes at present (there’s only so much to be done with a blog on Gastric Bypass when the surgery’s more than a year past) and once in a while a rant gets left somewhere. I guess you’d call me a pathological reader - at any point in time I’m reading something, and often don’t think until days later whether it was a blog, an article or a story.
There, I said it.
by Bob Rudolph
on October 17th, 2007 at 9:30 am
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I drop in here more often than I drop in anywhere else. Not sure I ever drop in anywhere else with any regularity, now that Miss Snark is dark. And I do check archives occasionally, if I’m looking for something special. Like Laura’s press kit post, which was exceptional. I don’t have a writer’s blog myself (boohoo!), although the real me has a real estate blog on her (my?) website. I only post when I have something to write about, though. Like the fact that the interest rates for 30 year fixed mortgages went up by 0.3% last week. It makes for a whopping difference of $1.94 per $100,000, so I figured it was worthy of a post.
by JennieB
on October 17th, 2007 at 10:26 am
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Pathological reader. I like that, Bob. I think I’m one of those, too.
by Sara
on October 17th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
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Hey JennieB, I miss Miss Snark, too. Wonder if she’ll start up again? Do you think blogs have timelines–limits. Everyone talks about this mystery series or that TV show going on too long. Can a blog go on too long?
by Sara
on October 17th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
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I try to drop in on a handful of blogs every day, some a few times a week.
Good Girls is a daily fix. If I don’t stop by it’s because I’m traveling, busy or sick. This past week it’s been a sorry confluence of all three.
As for posting, I used to post something new every day. I burned out in a year. Now I post when I run across something interesting or feel moved to write. I’ve given myself license not to post anything at all.
I know my readership has dropped off because of it (I don’t keep track, but I know) and that’s OK. Still, every now and then I’ll get email or run into someone who says they read my blog all the time and I’m genuinely surprised.
You do? I ask. Why in God’s name would you do that?
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Yeah, it always a bit surprising to find out someone is reading your stuff, isn’t it? Hope you feel better soon, David.
by Sara
on October 18th, 2007 at 7:53 am
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I have a lot of blogs bookmarked, Good Girls, Cozy Chicks, The Lipstick Chronicals, and about 15 more that are writing related. I have several that are food related, Orangette and the Urban Forager. But I usually just pop into Cozy Chicks and Good Girls daily, the rest are kind of hit or miss depending on time and interest leve.
I blog, mostly for my distant family and friends, but was shocked when I received a comment from a local author on the fact I had blogged about her book. It was this that taught me it wasn’t just an on line journal for my use but that my words could come back to haunt me if I wasn’t careful.
by Lynn
on October 19th, 2007 at 1:37 pm
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We’re glad you stop by here, Lynn!
The on-line community can be surprisingly small at times–that can be good and bad.
by Sara
on October 19th, 2007 at 3:53 pm
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Hi, hello, privet
unmechanized
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