With apologies to Pete Seeger, Joan Baez, and Peter Paul and Mary, I ask with a touch of sadness, "Where have all the Bloggers gone?" I believe I have an answer (again with apologies to 60s folk singers): "Gone to Facebook every one. When will they ever learn? When will they ever learn?"
I published my first blog post at 6:22 P.M. on Saturday, 19 May 2007, and have been blogging faithfully since then. My initial attraction was simply to something fun and new; I wanted to give it a whirl. Through the summer of 2007, I blogged fairly regularly and enjoyed reading family blogs. Blogging became really meaningful when we left for four months in England at the end of August 2007. Being away from family made contact through blogs a real treat. Three years earlier we kept in touch from London by instant messaging. That was fun, but time consuming. Blogging, since it often includes photos, is a very visual means of communication that really works for me.
I believe that one of the best aspects of blogging is that the blog becomes a record or journal of sorts. I have spent some very happy times reliving our life over the last couple of years by going back and reading posts and looking at pictures again. That has been particularly true of the posts from London. I need to find some means of preserving my posts, because I have never been a good journal keeper, and the blog is a great record of life. Katy and our other children are in the process of transferring the London blogs into printed book form. Perhaps that will be the best means of making them permanent.
When we returned from London just over a year ago everyone was going nuts over Facebook. I have considered trying it but felt it was voyeuristic somehow. Millie told me she felt the same way about blogs and she is probably right. That might be encouragement to make the blog only for invited readers. I have yet to create a Facebook account and so for now I have zero friends on Facebook. I have noticed that enthusiasm for blogging has waned as Facebook gained in popularity. The change in enthusiasm may simply be burnout, but I know several former faithful bloggers who are now spending lots of time on Facebook.
This is not a call to repentance by any means. It is just me figuring out why I blog:
• I blog for me - to create a history
• I blog so my children, particularly those who are far afield, can see what we are doing
So I will keep blogging, at least for now, because I still enjoy it, and I reafirm that I still love reading blogs of friends and family. For example, today it was thrillling to read Will's post about their experience at the President Obama's inauguration. Without his blog, I would never have been able to share in that stirring experience (reading it gave me chills). I love checking Jerry and Vern's blog to see the fun things they are doing in Brasil. It was great to see what the Gibbs/Browns were doing in London at Christmas, what the Hastings were up to in Hawaii over the holidays, and to watch the snow pile up in Portland at the Compton's. I love to see pictures of Finn and Harry no matter how mundane. So I hope you all will keep blogging too.
I will end with this very good observation by the Pope that went out over the wires (do we still say that?) today:
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI says social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace can foster friendships and understanding, but warns they also can isolate people and marginalize others.
Benedict urged a culture of online respect in his annual message Friday for the World Day of Communications.
Benedict welcomes as a "gift" new technologies such as social networking sites, saying they respond to the "fundamental desire" of people to communicate.
But he also warns that "obsessive" virtual socializing can isolate people from real interaction and deepen the digital divide by excluding those already marginalized.
That's all for now.
OXO
D.
Watch dog (not Winnie with a dye job)
"Scally Chat Chav?": obviously a British illustration
