Running Hot and Cold
I haven't been posting much lately for a variety of reasons. For one thing, work and this home-remodeling project is taking up a lot of my time. For another, I'm getting ready to leave for Washington D.C. tomorrow, so after this, there'll be another period of inactivity.
Another thing that's been sapping my will to post is that I've been seeing a lot of stuff showing up on other 'blogs that I posted here over a year or more ago, and I'm also seeing a lot of bloggers starting to recycle material they've already posted!
It's been happening to me too: I'm finding less and less original (unblogged) content, and a lot of the great sites I linked to in the early days of the Goof went totally unnoticed, so I find myself tempted to post them again, even though I think that's cheating.
In pondering these developments, I've come to the following conclusions:
1) We may be entering a phase where there are more 'bloggers on the Web than there are actual content creators, so a type of cannibalism appears to be taking hold, wherein everyone links to everyone else in some kind of gigantic electronic circle-jerk rather than linking to original stuff (because there ain't none).
2) Related to the above: some folks apparently have been blogging so much and for so long that their posting habits are becoming recursive, either through laziness or a desire to promote linkage that nobody noticed the first time around (an alternate theory of mine is that it's a form of electronic senility...;-)
The upshot to all of this is that I'm starting to think we've either reached, or are about to reach Peak Blog (sorry for the "crude" analogy), and that a phase of declining interest in the weblog phenomenon may be at hand.
Oh well. Enough introspection and analysis. I have a plane to catch. See ya!
Comments
Another period of inactivity as you recover from DC's weather sucking out your will to live?
As to your 'gigantic electronic circle-jerk', i say, "Periodicity: 4 years."
Posted by: rone | June 25, 2005 1:59 PM
safe trip and safe return.
"electronic senility" indeed. i feel that sometimes myself. usually goes something like this- did i already post this?! damn can't remember. could do site search... to much effort... screw it.
you are probably correct about the peak being approached, but just take heart, once the whole thing collapses under a mountain of shrugs and a whirlwind of sighs, we who remain can have all that juicy content all to ourselves.
ah.. after the blog apocalypse! i love the smell of lapsed domain names in the morning.
anyhow again, safe travels.
Posted by: Jmorrison | June 25, 2005 5:52 PM
Recycled links?.....You mean this story?....
http://www.matt-thornton.net/blog/uploads/bbcnewsworldlionmutilates42midgetsincambodianringfight
Its still funny
Posted by: Fritz | June 25, 2005 8:44 PM
I can't believe I've been doing the 'log thing for over five years now, on and off, one blog or another. No wonder I post so slowly nowadays.
DC in this weather? That should be cozy. Have a good one.
Posted by: M.Ace | June 26, 2005 8:17 PM
is it really important to blog about something first? i mean even if lots of blogs have blogged about something already or months or years before, it doesn't mean when someone blogs about it again that someone isn't going to discover it for the first time. some sites that were blogged about in the past may be worth blogging about again to see how those sites have changed. i don't see there being less to blog about, but i do see this desire for some bloggers to always be first with something - when maybe that's not the best attitude. i don't really see blogging as a competition, but maybe others do. i just prefer to blog about what i'm interested in, whether it's been blogged to death by others or not.
Posted by: william | June 27, 2005 2:06 AM
Interesting thoughts my friend.
When I started (August last year) there were You, The Cartoonist, Life In The Present, Excitement Machine, Sharpe Blog, Exclamation Mark, I Like, Incoming Signals, Kapowie Zone, Grow-A-Brain, Mister Pants, Plep, Robot Action Boy, Sugar 'N Spicy, The Ultimate Insult, Things Mag and of course some more covering some of the things I'm interested in . Now they wouldn't be able to fit in this comment box. It's exploding! But...
What I've also noticed is that more and more blogs is niche blogs, covering one specific interest. And that is cool.
Posted by: Sebastian | June 27, 2005 3:27 PM
Heheh--I got original content, beyotch. ;-)
Posted by: curt | June 27, 2005 4:26 PM
Maybe you should blog more about Lederhosen? ;-)
Back to your original posting: yes, the masses are all over the web and posting about everything and anything. Not very good and not very inspiring. I hardly read other blogs, because it's always the same media recycling and arguments over an over again.
The only 'solution' is the essayist: one might cover the same topics but in a unique style and maybe perspective. There is of course hardly 'anything new under the sun' - but I think it's more important how you yourself approach these things, news, postings and comments.
Posted by: orangeguru | June 27, 2005 6:56 PM
Good comments, everyone.
And yeah, D.C. sucks this time of year.
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 27, 2005 7:15 PM
That's why I've basically stopped posting links. We're merely repeating ourselves, Sebastian is quite right - and that's why I started posting more personal (but still weird) stuff.
Posted by: The Cartoonist | June 29, 2005 7:19 AM
And, apart from that, I'm fed up with all those 'Pulp Covers' and 'Russian Propaganda Posters/Art' links...over and over again the same links. And again. And again. I think we're repeating ourselves. I think we're repeating ourselves. I think we're repeating ourselves. I think ...
Posted by: The Cartoonist | June 29, 2005 10:06 AM
Ralf, I couldn't agree more. There are only so many book covers and posters that I can look at before my eyes glaze over.
And by the way, I really enjoy your 'special features' like basil, the roper, and the artist's tools because they're very personal and very original. But I just wonder how long it will be until everyone starts copying you...:-(
Posted by: MrBaliHai | June 29, 2005 10:18 AM
I wonder how long it will be until I'll have enough of this, of this all, and really, I AM being fed up - ah well, the Roper will continue, because one day I hope I'll get him published. Published meaning 'properly published', as in "sheets of paper with letters printed on them, forming words and sentences, being bound in between two cardboards" and so on ...
Oh no. No. I am not depressed. Not at all.
:-D
Posted by: The Cartoonist | June 29, 2005 3:02 PM