Sunday 10 July 2016

Is social media the demise of blogging?

Yes, I'm a crap blogger and I'm not even going to apologise for it. Let's just say that the past year has been one helluva bumpy ride and the moon landing was probably smoother than my 2015/16.

(The above intro was actually written about 3-4 months ago... and left in Draft, but since it still applies I decided to keep it. Plus ca change.)

Fellow local blogger, Island Fairy, mentioned that her social media accounts, Instagram in particular, have caused her blog to start dying somewhat and I can totally understand where she's coming from. Social media is so instant that we've lost the need to save our photos for a great blog post, because it's faster and easier to snap and share. And once the sharing is done, then what's the point of creating a post with the same photos? (Ok, the reason would actually be that you have different audiences on different platforms, but you get the gist).

She also did a little round-up about who she is for those who follow her on social media but may not be aware of her blog, and therefore have no background to her. It was a great idea and even I found out some things that I didn't know!

As writers I think we tend to struggle when our writing platforms are replaced by competing, yet equally compelling, other platforms. They eliminate the 'chore' that blogging sometimes brings with it, leading to the question: Do people blog because they love to write? Or do they love to share their stories online?

I don't think that it's as black and white as that and I certainly don't have any research at hand to be able to provide an answer, but I do think that people who love to write struggle when that love encounters the dreaded writer's block; the want to express your thoughts but they're just stuck in your head as fragmented pieces, rather than eloquent, flowing sentences. So, let's share a photo instead that can tell the story in an instant snap. It's a solution to the problem, though somewhat of a Pyrrhic victory at the same time.

It's very evident that the blogging block hit me hard when you just look at the date of the previous post - December 2015! Seven months ago. Two seasons ago. Last year! 

Time takes on a whole new meaning when kids are involved. "The days are long, but the years are short" - this is Gretchen Rubin's Third Splendid Truth in her book The Happiness Project (there will be another blog post about that - hopefully). 

Last night, however, I had words inside my head that needed to come out. Obviously that was also the moment when my WiFi wasn't working and therefore I couldn't blog about them at that moment as I would have liked to. Thankfully today, they're still there and the moment hasn't dissipated. I'm hoping that it lasts a bit longer this time.

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