Over on QuiltArt, folks are talking about blogging. Some have been blogging for a year or so. Please note the opening year over in the archives, LOL. I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about stuff like this because I heard several discussions about how email is being replaced by social media like facebook. Took some pondering to see how that works, but I guess I have to agree.
The nice thing about facebook is that you have control over who you see and who sees you, you can hide topics (usually games for me) that are of no interest but that your friends are posting about, and you can post once and have everyone who might be interested read about it all at the same time. In the early days we’d do straight emails. Then we’d be setting up email lists or forums for people to chat amongst themselves on. And now… facebook.
Can’t argue with something that’s working. I think many people are more connected, at some level, with more people than they might have been. I’m not touting huge friends lists. I’m more interested in how I might know more about what some cousins are doing than I would otherwise. Or get more up to date info about my family’s doings, more directly. No “did I already tell you this?” or at least not so often.
One might think this would be a bad thing overall, maybe substituting virtual connectivity for real encounter. But in my experience (and granted I’m not a wildly social being) keeping up on facebook makes real encounters feel better – there’s more of that “in common” thing.
And where does blogging fall in all this? My game plan is to keep blogging. For me it serves the same purpose it always did – journalling stuff for both you and me, and showing my progression and a look at my how-to and process. I decided early on in facebook that I would not substitute facebook for my blog. I post different things there, maybe more links etc. What I do is post stuff here and then post a link to the newest entry here over for the facebook community. They can come here and read it if they choose or just get the reader’s digest version over there.
That works for me, and hopefully for my readers as well.
I’m glad you’ll keep blogging. You frequently give me something to think about.
I love your blog. It really keeps us connected in a deeper way. Reading your posts is special. I like seeing your latest pictures. So glad you are keeping the blogs coming.