Monday 10 October 2016

Blogging is dead

There’s a question that has been vexing me of late. Even though I’ve been posting something almost every day, I have been wondering whether personal blogging is in fact dead. I was therefore delighted to find this piece written by one of my favourite non-bird bloggers, Emma aka Waffle. Please go away and read it and then come back (the link is entirely safe). I’ll go make a cup of tea.


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Done?



So what did you think? I have been wanting to write this piece or something like it for several months, but now I don’t have to as Emma has done it already, and far better than I ever could have. In simple terms it comes down to the interplay and life-cycle of catharsis and connection. Does a blogger write for themselves or for others? I think it always starts as the former. Surely only very infrequently does someone stand up and declare “The world needs to know about my life.” and then start a blog. Or a reality TV show. No, it’s a release done purely for personal reasons. For me, without going back to the very start I couldn’t actually remember why I started it in January 2009. However reading that firstpost suggests that it was dark and cold, that I was bored, and that other people were writing blogs so why not me? Knowing myself as I do, boredom was and is probably the key element here. As an aside, it also highlights that my love of double deckers existed even then, and that in 2009 my patch list was a mere 89. 89!! Eight years later I am on the dizzy heights of 146, and these days would expect to see 89 birds every year by about May. How things change. But I digress, this post isn’t about that.

About a month later I lost my job of 11 years and the process of writing something, anything, became a little bit more important. Stuck at home with a one year old and a three year old, it became less about birds and more about the minutae of my life. As you would expect the first 20 or so posts sank without trace, and it wasn’t until March that the first comment appeared, from none other than NQS (ex!)writer Gavin H. In the context of this current post this amuses me greatly. I did nothing whatsoever to advertise the fact I was writing it, or at least I don’t think I did, but somehow he found it, and so too did a number of other people. The next 20 posts also mostly sank without trace, but gradually in that first year I started to get what I hesitantly call a following. I hesitate as that sounds awfully big-headed, but we’re only talking about miniscule numbers of people and this is what Blogger itself calls it. I renamed it to Acolytes of course, it seemed only right.



Anyway, thus starts the next phase of personal blogging. The move from writing for yourself to satisfy some kind of inner-need, to writing knowing that other people are reading it, and that those other people may have some kind of connection to what you’re writing. You write differently of course, or I assume you do, and I am sure I did. I cannot pin down exactly what changes, but I think it largely comes down to caring more about whether what you write is actually decent, rather than just bashing something out and hitting publish without much thought. Emma has hit the nail on the head when she writes about the pressure, not imagined but real, to write something “good enough”. Good enough for the 100 people that might read it? Hah! You’ve not clue as to who 90 of them are, but somehow it still matters. You begin to interact with people whether you know them or not. Comments are eagerly anticipated. One blog post spurs another blogger to pick up the theme. One comment spawns a dozen. A tentative community somehow develops, especially on blogs that contain much heartfelt angst. I’ve never really had that, I’ve not laid my life bare as some have, and typically it is the stupider posts that seem to generate the most interest. Especially those with mildly fruity titles that Google searches may misinterpret.



This state of affairs continues for a while. It might be months, it might be years, but eventually this community, such that it ever was, declines. Disappears. It’s like that bit in Amélie where the old guy crosses off another deceased friend in his address book. If I look at that list of my favourite blogs over on the right there are many that are no longer there, many that I have sadly deleted. Of those that are left, some have been inactive for several months and their time is probably up. I note that as they drop off there is not much of a queue of worthy replacements. If not quite dead, personal blogging does indeed seem to be very seriously ill.

Ironically enough I blame social media. I don’t use many of these apps, Twitter and Whatsapp only, but surely the demise of blogging has a lot to do with the condensation of what little material there ever was into 140 characters or a quick photo. In the past I’d have written a whole post on a bird, and sometimes I still do. However I frequently now simply ‘tweet’ out a photo of the back of my camera and move on. It is the modern way. People can ‘like’ it with the prod of finger and also move on. It’s quick, it’s efficient, it requires almost no effort from any of us. You need not have an attention span longer than ten seconds. Why bother reading a post about a Yellow-browed Warbler hours later that evening when you can vicariously see the bird on the phone in your pocket two minutes after it has been discovered? As a further irony I sometimes tweet links to my latest blog post and sometimes people prod a finger at that too. Like. But that singular prod largely eliminates any possibility of community and commonality.  Am I suggesting that as a society we are becoming ever more vacuous?  I think I am.



By the way, this post isn’t a lengthy proxy for “leave more comments you ungrateful bastards”. Far from it. Time is at a premium, I understand that, and as people move into middle age (very early middle age in my case) I am experiencing this first hand and I am sure it is no different for most of my generation. I am busier than ever before. But nonetheless the demise is a shame. Blogging has only lasted a decade. I’ve been going for over seven years now, and as you may have guessed from the title of this post I'm feeling that it, and me, are on the way out. I’m not sure I need it any more, and I can fairly confidently say that nobody else really does either. Oddly enough though I’ve been bashing out more posts recently than at any time since 2013, but that’s the way it goes sometimes. A late and final flourish perhaps? And I’ve got half a dozen things lined up that last week and this weekend triggered the “oooh, I could write about that” instinct and that I filed away in whatever bit of my brain stores these nuggets. Feeding birds in my garden. Chequebook twitching. Sweet and delicious karma. How I’m not the only person to leave Shetland before a biggie (OK so those last two might be related…). A binocular craving. An obsession with temperature. How I am probably more stressed than ever but feeling incredibly relaxed.



Anyway, if you have ever blogged, or been a regular reader of a blog, please do go and read that link above. What I’ve written can’t possibly do it justice, and yes it’s a bit emotional and ‘deep’ in a way that Wansteadbirder never was or is ever likely to be, but nonetheless it resonates strongly, and it may do so with you too.

14 comments:

  1. A good post, Jono, well deserving of comment. I read Emma B's post (I did sometimes dip into her blog, via your link to it) and would echo many of her sentiments. Yours too. Blogging clearly is no longer the craze it was, but I am glad to have been part of it all. However, I don't think it is dead. Not yet. However, the lack of decent new ones is hardly a sign of pulsating vitality!
    Re your own blog: whatever you do, please don't delete it. My number one blogging regret is deleting NQS MkI and MkII. One reason is that I'm the kind of person who occasionally likes to wallow in nostalgia, and blog-wise I now cannot, but possibly the main reason is guilt. I think it was a somewhat disloyal thing to do to all those readers who regularly tuned in and enjoyed it.
    And who wants to carry that through the rest of their life? Certainly not you, I'm sure. ;)

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    1. My finger has never strayed near the big red delete button, fear not.

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  2. Bollocks. You're a great blogger. I've been reading for many years now, can't remember when I started. We've never met... although I was standing behind you at that curious Middlesex Filter Beds Nightjar a while back, worked that out from the comments of others there... particularly enjoyed the Dead Conservatory post although I mainly read to bird vicariously. At 57, I have neither the energy, the commitment nor the finances to go the places you go. I'll never get to Shetland and anyway, my knees would hate it. You're not done yet...

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  3. Don't you dare stop! I love reading your blog, especially your travel posts. I'm planning an Olympic NP trip and keep re-reading your recent trip report. I've passed on the link to my birding cronies over here in the US and some of them probably read it which is more than do with my blog ;-)
    http://mikes-photographs.blogspot.com/ if you're interested.
    I do mine for my friends and relatives in the UK as it's a lot easier to keep current than a website.
    Your photographs are first rate and writing style is eminently readable so I do hope you continue.

    Cheers

    Mike

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  4. Blooging dead? Not as long as the likes of you keep doing it!

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  5. A good post. I've only done one post this year for Galley so I guess I've lapsed too. Slightly different reason, as I got sick of the whole twitter/social media noise and dropped out of it. Don't feel the need to post pics, and my blog was always pretty much "what i've seen" anyway, so pretty lamey. Still post on the Golden Mallard blog but then thats totally lamey & just for mates really.

    Still enjoy reading blogs though, when I remember about them - your one and NQS would be tops for me. But agree with Gav - don't delete - its such a shame that Tom McKinney pulled his blog even tho it was mostly mindless swearing and ridiculous birding stories but it was very good!

    Anyway, I'm sure there's more wheatear pics you need to post yet, and a few more foreign jaunts in the pipeline?

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    1. yes Tom's Skills Bills and Gav's previous NQS are big losses. I guess a serious Radio 3 presenter can't be having a hugely sweary alter-ego, but Gavin has no excuse!

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  6. Hi Jono. I have never posted a comment before (i appolgise for that) but I have been reading your blog for several years now and check it for updates most days. It fills a few minutes in my working(?) day - I also work in your industory, loved birds when i was younger, forgot about it when it wasnt cool as a teenager, and came back to love it in later life. I have met you once breifly, birding with your son at Lakenheath and we swopped a few messages about otters once. I can only add to the sentiment on here, hoping that you wont pack in the blog. I love reading it, love looking at your wonderful photos and feel I have come to know you a little through your writing if not in person. Please continue to add a little brighness to my working days!

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  7. Hi Jono, I may not have commented on your blog before but I have read it for many years - one of the three I go to almost daily (North Downs and Beyond and Northern Rustic being the other two). Please don't stop. I might get a bit jealous sometimes about your foreign trips (how do you manage your time away from your family?!) but I love reading the reports and seeing the fab photographs. Your blogs are always entertaining. You have also helped put Wanstead on the map. I might never get there as I live in Yorkshire but I almost feel that I know the site now.Keep bogging!!

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    1. Love Northern Rustic for the feelings of utter jealousy Mark often produces in me, makes me wonder why I couldn't have done that, and as for NDB, astonishing variety. Bit too much shingle mind you.....

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  8. Please don't stop your blog. Your photographs are wonderful. Your descriptions of your travels thoroughly entertaining. I live in awe and bewilderment that someone actually likes travelling in planes for hours on end. I don't read any other blog and I wouldn't know how to find one. As I sit struggling to write yet another academic article that will probably only be read by ten people I often switch to look at your pictures of birds and scenery, just to cheer myself up.

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  9. Thanks all, appreciate it, but what I really want to find out from the collective wisdom is why is it declining? On to the next post!

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  10. Hello Jonathan, You do not know me though you have actually visited my garden as it was the site of the Orphean Warbler twitch in Nov 2013. I have been reading your blog since October 2013 when someone recommended it to me for the pictures of the Pembrokeshire Isabelline Wheatear. I was hooked and have been reading it (all of it, every post) ever since. Let me explain what I think is so good about it – each post is well structured with fluent writing and apt phrases, they cover a variety of topics, they are very funny and the balance of factual reporting and introspection is good and lastly the photos are terrific. In short, very good entertainment, or perhaps, the “blog of happiness”. If you stop, I shall really miss it – but of course you can’t keep going just to satisfy your readers, it would start to become forced.
    I do some writing myself – a regular wildlife column in the local magazine and I have written almost all of the Marloes website (www.marloes.org.uk) as well as copious wordy trip reports – so I do understand the urge to get your thoughts down on paper (as it were).
    Incidentally I expect I do not fit your usual type of reader – I am 66 year old female, a keen birdwatcher but not a twitcher, and with my husband I travel widely in search of birds (current world list 4364). I really enjoy your travel posts especially as we seem to go to some of the same places as you, either just before or just after, and some of them have been really useful. We went to Washington State earlier this year and your tips regarding Umtamum Road and Warden Lake were invaluable – I had done masses of research but was actually drowning in information and could not decide where to go when I reread your posts – Umtamum Road was probably the best morning of the trip.
    Please keep up the good work as I am very keen to know how the conservatory fares and how you tackle your rebellious slide into middle-age!

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    1. Ah-hah! What a fun bird that was, though your garden notwithstanding I did prefer the Wheatear twitch more! Could you move closer please? Glad you're enjoying it, interesting to see who is coming out of the woodwork. Like I said, I am undecided as to what the future holds, but bizarrely enough writing about what it may or may not hold is actually a little bit of a lifeline and helping me to remember what it is that I like about it.

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