Both a long time and a short time blog friend are having some second thoughts about their participation in the great conversation.
Yesterday Rick at Radically Inept opens with:
I think this will be the final post to this blog. As I’ve been blogging the past few months, I’ve come to realize, that by and large, it’s a self reinforcing circle. The people that read blogs, well, it’s largely limited to those that have the education to read, and the where with all to have a computer. It’s really a very small percentage of the population. And people generally only read what they already agree with.
He followed up a bit later with:The previous post was going to be my last, but I went for a three hour walk, and besides picking up some serious blisters, I found some inspiration.
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I’m beginning to feel the joy that comes with activism.
Today, Zombyboy at Resurrection Song says:When I started blogging, it was for a very few reasons:1. I thought that my opinion was worth sharing and that writing them out in the best manner possible would possibly be interesting for others.
2. I like to have my thoughts challenged by people I respect, and I expected to have lively, intelligent debates with people of a wide range of views. I didn’t blog just to share my thoughts, but to help form my thoughts by forcing me to reconsider many of my stands.
3. I thought it would be fun.
What I saw in the potential of blogs was the possibility of the greatest exchange of knowledge and ideas in the most egalitarian way that the world has ever seen. Maybe, someday, it will get to that point.
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As I said, I’m not ready to hang it up, but I am ready to re-think the site. I don’t know exactly what that means, but I do know that if I don’t find some personal satisfaction in the thing, I will give it up soon.
Yep, there has to be some fun in any activity that we undertake and there is a lot of work involved in Zombyboy’s first two reasons for starting to blog. Even enjoyable work can be wearing and if accompanied by unthoughtful feedback (read the rest of Zombyboy’s post) hard to continue.
Rick and Zombyboy may be experiencing just a bit of blogger burnout. We have our ups and downs in our various plays all the time and as another blog friend recently said:You wanna write, you write. You don’t wanna write, you don’t. There are no obligations here, unless you’re one of those rare people who gets paid for expressing their opinion on this here IntarWeb thingumabob.
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That’s the way it works. Something nudges the noggin and opinions spill out. “Burnout”? Give me a break. You’re just taking this stuff too seriously.
I probably take all this too seriously as well however it will be a lot more fun and interesting if Rick and Zombyboy’s opinions continue to spill out on their blogs.