Which brings me to an article in the Sunday Times recently.
"Lost for words online as blog craze falters", reads the headline.
Blog craze faltering? They quote a typical entry on a million blogs out there which goes like this:
"hey guys, i'am sooooooooooo soooooooooooo sooooooooooo sorry i haven't written in a while!! i've been working non-stop..... I miss you all ----- but anyway -- just wanted to check in and say hi! and I'll try to get here more often! back again soon!!"
And how often we see that entry! But as for the blog craze in general faltering, I doubt that this is true.
As the example above of Didier Pillet's weblog shows, blogging is becoming more and more a force to be reckoned with in the media and in the dissemination of news and information.
As Tony Allen-Mills says in his article "To the embarrassment of millions of internet users" -- from celebrities who keep online diaries, to ordinary people, would-be writers and would-be poets, people who genuinely believe that the world is interested in their ramblings and ponderings, "the evidence of failed diary-keeping cannot be easily erased from search engines that continue to provide links to blogs that have lain dormant for years". And all too many of these, as they are called "ghost blogs" have as their last entry something similar to the soooooooooo sorry apology above.
Last October, it is claimed, the blog phenomenon reached its peak, when about 100,000 new blogs were created each and every day. With about 100 million people blogging worldwide one has to wonder that there are not more sooooooooooo sorry messages.
As my readers will have noticed, I joined the MyBlogLog Community. Here one meets up with fellow bloggers and swop notes, ideas and a passion for blogging. When one looks at how many new bloggers appear only on this site -- one of no doubt thousands such communities, the mind boggles! The thought that often comes to mind is "What do these people do for a living?" How can they maintain their blogs -- often more than one, very often up to six or seven or eight blogs? Do they have a life outside of their blogs? --- and having asked that last question, those that obviously do have a life outside of the blogs -- because they write in their blogs about those lives, they are even more amazing, because having all those interests or running those successful businesses, or practising those fascinating hobbies, can surely not leave them enough time to still maintain the blog?
And when one also sees the intensity of emotions often expressed on blogs, it is no wonder that there are people who feel that when you let a blog die -- and become a ghost blog, you are committing virtual suicide. When I first heard this expression, my reaction was "oh what rubbish!........... surely??" but then, upon closer inspection of some of these blogs, I realised that this thought is not far-fetched after all.
Whichever way you look at blogging, it is a phenomenon of our times -- and one which I, for one, am willing to bet on staying for a good while longer.
Previous Articles on Blogging
Power of Blogging
Blogs: The unedited voice of the people
Blooker Prize: Literary prizes for blogs
Chateau Lalinde Blog
Blogs for Expats in France
Tourism in France
All-time favourite: The Ten Coolest Blogs 2007
Blogging - still, again and toujours!
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