Finding A Path
Iรขโฌโขll warn you up font รขโฌโ this post is pretty much a rant about the blogosphere as it is today. Read on if you want.
I think I have it รขโฌโ the reason Iรขโฌโขve been blogging less these last several months.
Itรขโฌโขs the stress. The stress of debate, of the times, of confrontation. Thatรขโฌโขs what I think Iรขโฌโขve been seeing develop around the blogosphere the last several months. Iรขโฌโขd been thinking it was part of the buildup to the super bowl of political events รขโฌโ the U.S. Presidential election.
Itรขโฌโขs more than that, however. Itรขโฌโขs permeated nearly everything I had been reading and following the last several years. As such, Iรขโฌโขve found less interest in participating in the discussion. Finding most of it to be that very echo-chamber we complain only the A-List participates in. Not true really รขโฌโ itรขโฌโขs top to bottom A through Z.
The same tired topics, the same rhetoric, the same names, the same points of view, the same crap over and over until it becomes nothing more than a manifestation of the joke that the รขโฌลunwiredรขโฌย population think รขโฌลweb 2.0รขโฌย is. That makes me both mad & sad.
Whatรขโฌโขs my point? Itรขโฌโขs that I started blogging because it was an outlet for ideas that I couldnรขโฌโขt share at work. It was a way to explore new topics outside the confines of my IT background into new fields of interest. It seems like that period has passed. Perhaps it hasnรขโฌโขt, but to me it appears that way. The tone, while civil, is changing. The conversations among bloggers is becoming debates.
Bloggers Iรขโฌโขve followed for years have developed into just another version of the mainstream media. It makes me wonder if thereรขโฌโขs space left to really exchange new ideas and further explore them to the fullest. Instead, I find the same rehashed topics left over from CNN, Fox and CBNC. Oh joy.
Layer the economic issues coming to light in the last week or two and you get a cacophony of รขโฌลsky is fallingรขโฌย postings from all the usual suspects. Whatรขโฌโขs worse than amateur journalism without a point? Uninformed, fear-filled, amateur journalism without a point. This point should back that statement up pretty well except that itรขโฌโขs not fear-filled, but rather loaded with disgust. Disgust that people who once came up with and shared new ideas, now canรขโฌโขt help but echo minor variations of the same theme.
On the other hand, some of those same popular bloggers that I used to read with gusto pointed me to the next great resource for ideas and inspiration. Fellow bloggers and writers who labor to share, teach, learn, improve and otherwise give back to their readers. Iรขโฌโขm off to the explore and share those ideas and experiences. Bloggers whoรขโฌโขve yet to really get noticed by the whoรขโฌโขs who (and maybe one who has) are what Iรขโฌโขm looking for, so share some of the ones you know of.
How about you? Whatรขโฌโขs your take on the state of the blogosphere?
Photo credit: James Gordon (James has an interesting post that accompanies the above photo about the sliding rocks of Racetrack Playa in Death Valley, CA)
Update: Of course, an hour after I wrote this great post I ran across Coarsness Threatens Social Media Growth by Chip Griffin. That’s what I get for not staying on top of my feeds!
๐
