The blog is obviously close to death, but somehow refusing to die. Two posts this year, barely.
I՚m doing just as much thinking, and presumably have about the same level of somewhat-blogworthy ideas as I always did. But the shape of the media landscape has changed. It՚s weird because I never really thought of this blog as part of a trend or movement, but I started it when blogs got started and it died when blogging as a medium died. As someone who generally feels out of step with everything, it՚s kind of strangely pleasurable to find myself part of a wave, even if I only noticed it after the crash.
The Minsky book came out with an introduction I wrote (I got the gig on the strength of this earlier blog post), which gave me some momentary kvelling opportunities. Then shortly thereafter his name got ensnared with the Epstein/MIT sex scandals. Eeesh. (I mostly resisted commenting on this sad situation, but here՚s my thoughts).
That was a blow, and it wasn't the worst of last year, not by a long shot. It՚s been a rough one.
I՚ll close it out with some thoughts from some of the weirder neighborhoods of Twitter:
Ego is the mind overfitting to its own history.— Sport of Brahma (@SportOfBrahma) December 24, 2019
The year is 20XX. Crime is not just legal, it is mandatory. The only currency is photographs of water and the last remaining company, Capitalism Corp, is hoarding them all. Only one man can stop them, and his name is John Motorcycle. There’s just one problem: he’s a computer.— Emma (@emmadaboutlife) December 16, 2019
The body is the API of the soul.— Slope of Function (@SlopeOfFunction) February 10, 2019
instead of a new year's resolution, consider articulating a new year's resignation; for example, I am resigned to the violent passage of time, the waste of my mind, the endless winter— neotenebre (@ctrlcreep) December 31, 2019
2 comments:
I've been continuously blogging dozens of posts since the Aughts. I guess I never got the message that blogging died or became unpopular. I guess I spend my time around people who are out of tune with cool crowd.
I actually blog more now than in the past. It's social media that I've mostly given up on. Much of blogging is simply longer form writing, like articles or essays, if a more informal form of it.
I doubt it will ever go out of style. Even mainstream media maintain blogs these days. But I realize many younger people have decreasing attention spans. I bet there will be a reversal in this over the coming years or at least decades.
It probably goes in cycles. When newspapers and penny dreadfuls became popular, there probably was a drop in sales of novels. But novels made a resurgence later on. If you stick with a medium long enough, like keeping those old clothes in the closet, it will come back into style eventually.
I found that happened with my flannel shirts. I was wearing them since the 1990s. Then they suddenly became all the rage these past years. Suddenly, my clothing was cool and people were praising me for my shirts. I found it amusing.
Hey thanks for visiting! It's been too quiet around here.
You are right, blogging isn't dead, it's a pretty basic form that will outlive whatever trends come and go. I'm just not sure I'm as motivated to put words in that form.
Found my way to your blog, looks like we have quite a few common interests, including PKD and flannel shirts.
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