Slow summer? Or has the blogging mania died down? Yes and yes. Blogging, along with every other form of media output, always slows to a trickle during the long, wet days of silly season. But it can't be denied that blogging isn't a craze anymore. Amen to that, I say.
All the cultural mavens chattering excitedly about blogging say, five years ago, have moved on to twitter about Facebooking. That means that the people who started a blog to be trendy and in-the-know have mostly drifted off, leaving their stale urls littering the blogosphere like fallen apples. The many organisations and companies eager to get a piece of the action have figured out exactly how blogging best fits in with what they do (or whether it does at all) and reconfigured things.
The result? I think people who blog now are likely to engage with it in a more substantive way. Blogging as a form of journalism and cultural comment has been subsumed into the mainstream media, while blogging as a way of publishing creative writing online continues to evolve in exciting directions.
So yes, blogging's profile has dropped a bit, but I don't think that's a bad thing. On a local level, I feel like I haven't helped much, y'know, going off and having a baby and all and not blogging much or organising blogmeets (not to overstate my own role in the Manchester scene. Ahem.) But hark! After months of me dropping hints someone has finally seized the blogmeet baton: Julia of Notebooks and MEN Online Editor Sarah Hartleyof The Mancunian Way have between them cooked up a real, live blogmeet. It's set for Wednesday, September 17 at 6pm.
The action is in two parts: first, a tour of the Manchester Evening News newsroom and Q&A with an editor there (limited numbers - go here for info. Second, a more traditional unstructured blogmeet in a nearby pub. Voting on which pub is happening at Sarah's site now. In choosing a pub, I would advise you to consider two important qualities 1.) "dive"-ness and 2.) likelihood to be empty enough to afford the gathering bloggers enough space to comfortably unwind at that thirsty hour. I will try to attend with the littlest blogger in tow, but I probably won't make it. Early evening is our fussy time.
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12 comments:
Those of us that started blogging before it was cool will continue blogging when the flavour of the month crowd have moved onto something shinier.
I'll mark the date down in my diary - probably won't be able to get to Manchester in time for the MEN thing, but I can probably do the pubmeet.
Some interesting points, although I think you're overly hard on yourself with regard to dropping the blogging ball. At least you went away for a valid reason, rather than from a lack of anything to say like most of the other bubble bloggers. Your return is to be welcomed because I think you've got a lot to offer to the scene. As Stevie Wonder once said - don't go changing.
That said I think pregnancy has temporarily muffed your simile-generating prowess. Fallen apples, becoming stale? This may seem overly harsh but when you originate from an area where stuff falling from trees is pretty much the highlight of the calendar, I think we deserve the full, rotting, mulchy truth.
Oh dear what does this make me?
Starting a mcr blog now, does that mean I am trying to jump on the bandwagon long after it has left?
Ah, anonymous, how I blush! You're absolutely right about me losing my metaphoric mojo. Instead of stale, I should have written sour, slimy and putrefying. Clearly living in a place where I don't actually see fallen apples on a regular basis has rotted me brains.
And don't worry Brimstone Magpie: The bandwagon's out of the picture, so you're clearly starting a blog for a good reason
Not to nudge the point closer towards the edge of redundancy but it would actually be your similitic-mojo that you had temporarily misplaced. Or similar.
You're funny.
Perhaps you mancunians are ahead of those of us elsewhere in the North West :) In my local area of Preston blogging has really taken off in the last 12 months, with lots of interesting and worthwhile community related blogs. You may be right that those who were playing with the technology have moved on, but their contribution helped bring blogging to the stage where it's embedded within community life, which has to be a good thing in my book.
I think blogs are just evolving and becoming more focused. I've just found a way to embed and promote blog feeds within Facebook which makes it much more interactive. I felt a bit like a fallen apple until I found a way to get people to visit my blogs.
I think Blogging should remain - what I mean is, Facebook and MySpace etc just isn't blogging. In fact I find Facebook very annoying and it fails to be an expression of ones true imagination.
i blame mobile phone keyboards. a twitter is about all people have the energy to type with their poor over-worked thumbs. yes, blame the mobile phones.
Twittering - ah, I just can't get past how silly it sounds.
You want to try living in Newton-le-willows. We're just about figuring out Teletext in this neck of the woods.
EAR I AM
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