I started my blog on July 4, 2003. I somehow forgot, this time around, to celebrate another year of tap-tap-tapping away at the keyboard.
I've been working on this blog for four years-- nearly half a decade. I'm not alone, either: blogging doesn't seem to have diminished in popularity. Not yet. All things end, but blogging is easy, largely free of charge (unless you use a paid service), and is supported by the fact that the Internet still remains a mostly-text medium. That's going to change as video podcasting becomes even quicker and easier; eloquence at the keyboard can be trumped by oral eloquence plus visual charisma: a good-looking vlogger who also has a brain can run circles around us flabby, introverted keyboard commandos. But the reign of the vlogger is still some ways off; in the meantime, it's my kind that rules this little patch of cyberspace. It's still a matter of fingers, not faces.
Whatever blogging's eventual fate, I see myself continuing to churn out posts for the foreseeable future, perhaps even after blogging has died down as a craze. I like writing; it's as simple as that. Despite the passage of time, this blog remains what it's always been: a place to air out my thoughts and harvest material for future books. I consider blogs far superior to message boards, which are, in my opinion, too disjointed a medium: a single voice gets drowned out in the hubbub of conversation threads. I prefer having my own molehill and having the option to visit yours. Voices are clearer that way.
It's been interesting to watch the evolution of my own blogroll; I've outlasted many blogs that were far more popular, far pithier, and far better illustrated. Perhaps I'll outlast them all; I'll be the incarnation of George Burns's joke about being in show business until there's nobody left.
My hits are currently in the high 200s; that's the daily number of "unique visits" according to SiteMeter. Such is summer traffic. Once we're back to fall, I expect to be in the high 300s again; that's where I've been for about the past two years. The blog remains a smorgasbord, a jumbled medley of tone, content, and style. As I've always maintained, this guarantees low numbers: people flock to blogs that are easy to pigeonhole-- politiblogs, news blogs, humor blogs, sex blogs, and "meta"blogs that spend more time linking than thinking (to use Dr. Vallicella's distinction).
So I'm especially thankful to those who visit this blog regularly: you're the folks who don't follow the herd, looking for yet another portal site. You come here for a snapshot of my brain, just as I visit your blog for a snapshot of your grey matter. And if you're a visitor who doesn't have a blog, well... start one! I've heard the excuses, most of which boil down to either "I don't have time" or "I don't have talent." Bullshit. You can make time, if you've got something to say, and talent is often in the eye of the beholder. Of course, if you simply don't want to blog, then OK, you lazy fucker. But if you have something to share, why not share?
Happy Birthday, Hairy Chasms. May the sound of your flapping buttocks bring peace to all the nations.
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Happy Barfday, BLOG!!
ReplyDeleteI disagree about Vlogs. I think they will gain in popularity, but that they won't overtake the traditional text based blog.
ReplyDeleteThere are a couple of reasons for this. Primarily that to make a video takes a lot more work to do well then to type something out. Though it will get easier it's still going to take effort to get something that looks good.
Secondly it's not really possible to skim a video blog to get a general idea of the content and is thus requiring a greater commitment from viewrs. Honestly how many video blogs are you going to go back and watch all the archives? It's this second reason that I can't be arsed to follow any podcasts. I think podcasts are great in theory, but don't work for me in practice. Maybe I'm just an old fuddy duddy but that's the way I see it.
Happy blog birthday.
Congratumalations!
ReplyDeleteAs for vlogging surpassing blogging, I suppose we'll have to wait and see. Television certainly had a tremendous influence on radio, but it didn't spell its demise (even though a lot of people thought it would (and despite what the Buggles might have thought)), so I suspect that something similar will happen in the blogosphere--change, not demise.
Will the blogging craze die down? Yes, probably, but perhaps not in the way that people suspect. That is, it is possible that blogs will become so commonplace that it will no longer qualify as a "craze." But that may be overly optimistic.
Whatever the case, it's good to know that Hairy Chasms will be around, pumping out quality content at a rate that some sites (I will mention no names) could never hope to match.
Happy Blog Birthday, Kevin, and well-put!
ReplyDeleteI have to say that I agree with EFL Geek about the continued dominance of the printed word on the internet. It's precisely because I can't skim (to say nothing of avoiding the time listening to advertisements) that I never click on videos on even the mainstream news sites.
Anyway, glad you're still around! I will also continue blogging, as often as I'm able, until I die.