Back in the days before Facebook (is it possible?!) the first task of my day was to log onto Blogger and see if anyone had read my blog, possibly even left some comments. It was so exciting for me to have my own tiny corner of the worldwide web where I could let friends and family know my daily thoughts and activities that I even installed a little tracker on it, that would tell me who had viewed my blog from various regions of the globe (excitingly, if not very accurately)
Since Laura demanded I get onto Facebook (curses on your head, Mitchell!) my blogging has waned - nay, stalled. At first I felt a little guilty. I still used to log on and check for comments most days, then it became most weeks. I made a few half-hearted, tepid posts, low on inspiration and humour and with a view to getting back onto the realtime updates of Facebook.
And while we're being honest, I may as well admit that the second task of my day was to check up on other blogs I enjoyed to see if they had been updated. You know. Friends' blogs and things. Jani and her exotic, artsy life in Montreal. Holly and the exciting changes of motherhood. Laura and her big move across Canada. Arwen and Andy and their European adventures. And, um...well, a rather ecclectic collection of blogs that I had randomly stumbled across while blog-surfing (I never said I was cool, OK!) and had rather liked.
My collection of must-see blogs (there is even new-fangled term for this desire to check blogs for updates before getting on with your day: Blogjammed) includes the following:
- A Mormon stay at home Mom with 5 children, one of whom is disabled;
- a 40-something American guy who blogs about his intensely complicated affair with a woman who he would literally do anything for, but she is happy with her boyfriend and thinks of him as just sex on the side;
- a British woman living in the USA who delights me with her witty, insightful comments on differences of life over there;
- a Southern gal who takes amazing pics and blogs about her fun lifestyle;
- a Canadian gentleman in his 90s, who blogs about anything that interests him;
- a Venezualan woman living in the UK who is currently in the throes of schizophrenic psychosis but doesn't let that deter her from blogging!
My point is this: Although my own little blog is slowly crumbling to nothingness, I still check others' blogs (including those of my real friends!) most weeks. I find that most of them, too, seem to have been abandoned or are only half-heartedly updated. Could it be possible that such a randomly non-connected group (though I suppose connected to each other through me, in my own mini version of 6 Degrees of Separation) could all have been taken over by the Facebook/MySpace phenomena and therefore feel no need to blog?
I find it a little unlikely. Is it just that the Blog has had its day and is necessarily being phased out, going the way of cassette tapes and leg warmers? Is it lights out for my own little Bumblelou?
