Things I don't understand >

Uncategorized > Why I’ve nearly stopped blogging

Why I’ve nearly stopped blogging

Uncategorized October 26th, 2009

Over the past few weeks, a lot of things have happened: I’ve changed jobs (to a much better one, I hasten to add), moved location (by 600 miles), and to a certain extent, changed attitude to blogging and blogs in general.

A part of that has been the new responsibilities that have come from my job – I just have less time to devote to blogging, commenting and participating in issues that I think should be of concern.

But there’s something else.

Because I am deliberately anonymous, I cannot write about issues which are close to my heart but which could identify me. That puts me at something of a disadvantage compared to people like Steve McIntyre or Benny Peiser or Tony Newbery (or others I could name but won’t) who can talk about any issue that they feel like.

Microblogging

For the most part, the amount of time that you can devote to blogging is usually too small to be of much interest except to a small audience of people who already know you (your family and friends). For them, the microblog phenomena like Tumblr and Twitter have been a godsend. They don’t have much to say and a small space to say it in might make them feel important and connected – who’s to say?

The “Me Too” Derivative blog

Then there’s the blogger who doesn’t actually create any new insight – he or she simply cuts and pastes articles or discussions from elsewhere and maybe adds a comment or two. This is a very large category of blogs on the Internet.

The Original Content blog

Finally there’s the blog where the author generates new and interesting comment and insight. The quotation mark and the blockquote tag are sparingly used. Climate Audit is one such blog (that I’ve been proud to have been a small part of) but there are others. Such blogs are relatively rare.

Most blogs, lets face it, are unoriginal, derivative and banal. Microblogs and “me too” blogs are the vast majority of blogs out there. The derivative blog finds its full expression in aggregating blogs like Slashdot, Digg or Instapundit – the ultimate accolade of a derivative blog is to get linked to by the aggregators – or perhaps its like the Internet equivalent of the celebrity drug that recently a family got into trouble for attracting attention just once too often.

That’s how I’ve felt about my blogging – its derivative not original, banal and desperate. I don’t really have the time to blog properly and produce original insight, so I feel I’ve got to do something so I copy and paste and add a comment or two here and there – in other words I’m a blog parasite.

I’m convinced that the only people who have time to produce original content are either retired, semi-retired, in some sort of academic tenure or self-employed. These people can pick and choose their times to produce original content.

Not the unemployed, because last time I was unemployed I spent all day every day trying to get a job and fretting about any time I was spending NOT trying to get a job. Besides which, who wants to read the diary of a guy who spends most of his time whining and fretting (don’t bother, I know what the answer is)? I don’t know if there is an interesting blog about an unemployed guy talking meaningfully about his life and other things without it all sounding desperate and hollow.

I have lots of ideas for blogs, but precious little time to bring them to fruition. I can only seethe in jealousy as other people get to talk about their favourite subjects because they have plenty of time and plenty of original material. Like Anthony Watts blog for instance.

Nearly limitless time if you’re crazy

There is one final category of bloggers but its not so much a problem of blogging as it is about message boards and social media – the mentally ill. Mentally ill people, particularly people with schizophrenic disorders appear to have infinite time to fill message boards and newsgroups with deranged crap. They make less assiduous bloggers because their mental illness makes them demand that PEOPLE RESPOND TO THEIR GOD-LIKE INSIGHTS IMMEDIATELY. But mentally ill bloggers are usually few and far between because mental disorders are usually the products of disordered minds, the exact opposite of what successful long term blogging is about.

A subset of the mentally disordered could be people who would be diagnosed as having autistic spectrum disorders, like for example Asperger’s Syndrome. These are more common as bloggers than out-and-out crazies.

People with obssessive compulsive disorders might blog, but Complete Nirvana for OCD sufferers is not blogging but Wikipedia – a gigantic opportunity to play with facts and history, as well as other people just like them. For OCD sufferers, Wikipedia is like shelf-stacking with an infinite number of tin cans and shelves to be arranged and rearranged endlessly – pure bliss if that what you feel compelled to do all of the time.

What can I say? I’ve stopped the Solar Science blog because I felt for too long that it was an aggregator blog, not a blog of original insight. I just don’t have the time to turn Solar Science into an original blog of content – or maybe that’s the excuse I give myself for not devoting to my subject and organizing my time better.

Or maybe I expect too much of myself. Maybe I’m just not that interesting after all.