15 January, 2015

Musings on things of a interwebby nature


While in the US over Christmas, my lovely friend Em and I were talking about her upcoming adventures and courses for the year (too many to link, but seriously check them out: in our element, soulful escape to Bali, a year of soul makes) and we got around to talking about blogging and blog readership.  Em said "does anyone really blog anymore?".  Let me back track a little to tell you about how Em and I met:

In 2004 we moved back to Australia from the US.  At that time my sister-in-law, Chelsea (and one of my favorite ever people) was still living in the US.  She'd started a blog around that time, and I started reading it to keep in touch.  As a stay at home mum in a new and foreign (to me) city (Sydney) I took to blogging like it was mother's milk.  Suddenly I discovered this world out there of like minded people who shared their loves, their makings, their very varied lives.  I'm not a great collector of friends, but suddenly I found I had a tribe of people who understood me.  And, missing the US, I found Emily's blog as a creative Australian living in the US (California at that time).  I followed her (and many other) blogs.  I commented from time to time, and she responded.  I connected Chels with Em's blog as they had a lot in common too.  And Chelsea started an online friendship with her.  And as it turned out in those stranger than fiction moments, Emily had met both Chelsea's husband (my husband's brother) and another brother in the family from when they went to Perth.  The world is indeed much smaller than people think.

Chelsea met Em and became very good friends and I continued my online acquaintance with her.  Fast forward some years to 2006 when we moved back to the US and I decided to start a blog.  As a foreigner in a new town, my blogging friends were more and more real than the people I knew around me.  It got me through a lot, and through my blog I met in person some very wonderful people (shout out to Simmy if she still visits here; we became blog friends and on a trip from the UK to the US she and her family stayed with us.  We got on so well they did so the following year and I few years ago I stayed with her in the UK, unfortunately her life became to busy to keep up with her blog, and I miss that regular connection with her life).  At some point, Emily moved from California to New Hampshire (via Perth) and found the move to the New England winter challenging.  By this point we were firm online friends and it didn't take long after we bought our VT house for us to meet in person and we have continued to be friends ever since.

My point, I guess, is that blogging has been such a wonderful world of connection for me.  I have grown creatively through the connections I have made through blogging.  (When I talk blogging, I really mean all those wonderful creative blogs out there- some of which are in my blogroll).  I've seen people grow fledgling businesses, write books, have children, discover new passions.  And I have loved the ride.  My own family feels they have watched my children grow up, even though we have lived far from home for so many years.

And yet, I do wonder if blogging has had its day.

Don't get me wrong, I adore instagram, and I think a lot of blogging people have moved over there for the simplicity, the lack of time commitment (blogging can seriously suck up time), for the lack of pressure to say "something".  I'm not a fan of Facebook which just feels like noise to me and I haven't yet worked out what I think of twitter. Pinterest is my brain storming site and I have discovered some good blogs through it.  Who knows what the next big social media will be.

But I miss the almost curated feel of blogging.  People taking the time to write, to post beautiful pictures, to share a public journal of their lives.  And while I love connecting with people I know on instagram and seeing what they are up to, it's not really the place where I discover new friendships.

I guess where all this is going is that while there are times when I feel like there is no point blogging anymore, that I have nothing worthy to say, and I am merely resharing my instagram photos, I like that I have a space where I can be thoughtful and present.  And just maybe there are other people out there in the world who I will connect to over time.


*************ALL PHOTOS ARE RANDOM AND HAVE COME FROM MY INSTAGRAM ACCOUNT OF THE LAST FEW DAYS****************

3 comments:

  1. I love a pensive post. I have toyed with alternatives while blogging (and other computer delights) have not been available to me. I missed the sharing, the feeling that I was with the people who look at my blog. It's almost like a meditation. The feeling of clam and connection. When it's working well, that is!
    XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  2. That is, of course, meant to be 'calm'. Too much seafood. And I think I'll have to get you to do another picture of me...
    XXXX

    ReplyDelete
  3. i thought that my blog was over and done too Auntie Georgia ..but i have returned ..if not for anyone else but ME....i, like you, have learned so much about others around me from all over the world ..but i think when we look back we have come so far learning more about ourselves and we see like a boat we have changed course many times ..thank goodness we still have hold of the rudder XXXXX

    ReplyDelete

Thank you so much for reading my blog. I LOVE to have comments-even if I don't know you, please stop by and say HI! If you have a question for me, I'll answer in the comments, so please check back.

ShareThis