The other day someone asked me "Dude, what happened to your blog?"
"Why nothing," I answered primly. "Why?"
"You don’t write as much as you used to. In fact no one does. There’s not much to read on the blogging scene."
Ouch.
I was about to give some outraged response when I realized what she said was absolutely 100% true. Now that i think about it none of the blogs I used to read are updated anymore, and if they are, its just as irregular as mine.
But the irony is there are MORE Kenyan blogs today than they were a year, two, three, four years ago. Why then is it so difficult to find interesting stuff to read?
For a long time I believed twitter was the culprit. Twitter is just too easy. You open the client, type your half baked thoughts and BAM. Its in the ether. You later notice your spelling mistakes and BAM you update your status again.
Contrast this with writing a blog post. For me writing a blog post was a process. Get an idea. Flesh it out. Edit and re-edit a couple of times. Locate and crop images. Insert images appropriately. Read through the final draft. Upload. This would take as long as a day for particular posts.
No comparison with twitter. You can have anything up literally in seconds. And I do mean literally.
"Taking a dump" I read the other day. Indeed.
Could it be that twitter is sapping our creative juices?
I’ve just read a fascinating piece by Potash that really does not need much commentary.
His assertion is that twitter is not actually to blame — although I have doubts about that. For me I must confess that twitter is a big culprit in chipping away at the mojo. Although he raises a proliferation of content to do with social media (a term i have promoted to join ‘cutting edge technologies’, ‘core competencies’ and ‘leveraging technology and processes’, the triumvirate of flowery language that conveys more irritation than meaning).
He says that there are simply no more stories being told. It is all about cyber activism, social media and citizen journalism.
Go read it. It’s fascinating stuff.
I’m inclined to agree. There is a collective peer pressure pushing blogging towards these cubby holes.
It raises a point that I have personally been finding irritating and that Kenyanpundit has often voiced — must technology in the African context always be only about noble goals — poverty eradication, good governance, etc? Must we keep blogging only as citizen journalism? Technology for Africa?
When all the submarine cables came it all became about developing local content and BPOs. Why wasn’t anyone excited about now how they could finally stream youtube videos and radio stations? Or download MP3s? Or (God forbid!) download porn?
Are we overdoing digital activism and citizen journalism? Have we ceased the simple effort of telling stories?
I think not only is twitter a factor but there is also facebook, many people choose to write notes and status updates instead of posting links as more people are logged onto facebook anyhow.
But in some way I do agree with potash that there are less juicey stories to be told as the large number of blog posts that appeared with the finger of god scandal can attest to.
I think blogging will just evolve as technology has always done to deal with new comers to the scene…..
I think Twitter is to blame largely for the dearth of comments.
As for posting, it’s just tougher to do a quality post, and with so many bloggers and events happening now, you want to be unique, when you do a post, or you’d rather not bother
I’m guilty as charged on two counts: I don’t blog as often as I used to, and I’ve done my share of blogging my excitement about the stuff happening in the tech arena in Kenya lately.
I don’t know why I don’t blog as often as I used to. I used to beat myself up about it (i don’t know why, don’t ask me why) but I don’t any more. I blog when I’ve got something to say and time to say it.
The reason I’ve blogged about the tech scene in Kenya is because it’s been exciting for me to read positive stories about Kenya making the international rounds. It just so happens that those stories have been in the tech space. Same reason I blog about our achievements at the Olympics.
But at the same time, I understand full well where potash is coming from.
There used to be a lot more range and depth and nuance. Now at the initial reading, you almost get the feeling that we’re being curated by the same ‘person’ or ‘group of persons’ and that that curator has a techie bent. The underlying assumption seems to be that if you want to draw attention, there’s a certain range of subjects that you should be talking about.
It may well be a coincidence for some, but that certainly is the way it looks.
So whereas lately in Kenya tech has justifiably been the story, tech is also in the platform that enables us to tell our diverse stories. And, like potash, i’d like us to bring back the story.
Twitter is main culprit. though i also think with the passage of time some of the interesting blogs that i used to read on a daily basis have become repetitive/boring. I wonder if there is anyone that still visits kenyaunlimited.com for their aggregated blogs. in fact you can aggregate on your own on blogger [i don't know about wordpress n others]
guilty as charged!
However for me facebook has been more the culprit coz there you have a platform for all your photos, links, comments and stories on notes.
About stories there’s this blog I follow written by a Nigerian. Collaborated with a couple of her friends on a blog story which ended up being published as a book this year check it out here http://inmydreamsitwassimpler.blogspot.com/
You are so right on so many levels!
I even wanted to “like” this post…. SMH
Also, people just can’t be bothered to read the longer posts.. it’s just laziness. With my blog I’ve noticed that when i go all ranty and write a super-long post, there’s dumbdumbs that will go and write on my wall on FACEBOOK (on FACEBOOK!!!)
“Ati what were you saying on your blog?”
(-_-)
It’s a Kenyan thing, I think. Too many words.. make us dizzy :p
This articles kinda says the same thing.
Why East Africa still remains a literary dwarf — http://www.nation.co.ke/News/Why%20East%20Africa%20still%20remains%20a%20literary%20dwarf%20/-/1056/900798/-/item/1/-/aoufco/-/index.html
Nothing to add to this except that I wd like to comment off-topic and tell you how much I like the new template.
Oh ok, maybe one thing I wd like to 2nd is what Cassandrae said: ppl just don’t want to read longer blog posts these days. Something similar to this: http://ht.ly/20P67
We can always go on all social media networks. No need to blame twitter or facebook.Personally, I’m on facebook, twitter, wordpress…add to that muxlim.com and tumblr….what I normally do is write one note (wordpress), and then link facebook/twitter/muxlim/tumblr to it. It does take time, of course, but it works to boost stats.
Its not Twitter. I hate Twitter. I personally can’t be bothered anymore. No more juice. I blog for work anywho and thats draining! Instead I write notes on Facebook for my friends (who were my blog readers anyway, apart from the the odd person who stumbled on it)
It’s not a “Kenyan thing” to not like reading long paragraphs. I have had my blog since early 2000 and I still update it like I used to, the only thing that changed is that it isn’t public anymore. I think if your main reason for blogging is for an audience then your motivation could fizzle out when people head in twitterised directions. I’m not on twitter, it’s just a bit dumb to me (like literally) I like blogging alot and it’s a pity blogging has now become like writing letters by hand.
A great Q that is blogging dead? I think poor Bloggo is in ICU on a saline drip, feeding by nostril and with heart-lung machinery attached. If it wasn’t for the work a few real tough veterans we would at this minute be scattering Bloggo’s ashes to the winds – A few good bloggers have kept hope alive.
Following on from a previous posting let us take responsibility and not blame twitter, facebook or Tiger. If we do not write or read Bloggo will die. Simple.