Monthly Archive for December, 2007

Art by Facebook friend, Alana Servis, drawn on daughter Susan’s SuperWall.

Hugh is right, you know. From his post, Blogging is dead? According to whom?:

2007 has been all about :"Social Networks". With Facebook leading the charge, suddenly who you know seems far more interesting to the journalists than what
you know. Screw the nodes, it’s now all about the network, People. All
about "The Social Graph", People. We no longer worry about what we have
to say, we worry about who’s controlling our data. We no
longer talk about folk we know, like and admire, and what they’re up
to, we talk about hot-shot startups and how many billions Microsoft is
going to pay for them …

… If you have something to say, then a blog offers a cheap, easy global
medium in which to express yourself. This is as true now as it was
three years ago, regardless of what the groovy cats in Silicon Valley
may be up to …

…  if you’re one of these people considering giving up on blogging in
exchange for paying more attention to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and
MySpace, or whatever they throw at us mere mortals, bear in mind you
are giving up on something rather unique and wonderful …

Of course, Hugh McCleod’s thing has been to build his own personal business brand via blogging. And he’s had great success with the South African winery, Stormhoek, and other ventures. Not that he’s eschewed Facebook, Twitter, or other social media. Not at all. But he’s held to – and continued to build  – his personal brand.

I don’t have a business interest in building my brand. But I must say whatever I did build by blogging, here and at Coit Avenue, has dwindled considerably over the past year or so since my blogging efforts have tapered off. And why? For me, it’s the fact that social networking is so much easier than blogging. And the feedback is so much more immediate.

But what of that feedback? What of ‘results’? I now have 70 friends on Facebook (not bad for an ‘oldster’ with no claim to fame). I spend a fair amount of time each day reading and updating the daily mundane about and for that disparate 70 (too many of whom are my kids and their friends). And for what? There’s no thinking or probing here, no exchange of thoughts or ideas, no synthesis and certainly no real conversation. Connection, yes. But nothing meaningful.

I guess my point is this: If the only way you connect is through social networking, it’s  like eating only desserts. It’s sugary, fun and easy to take. But it always leaves me wanting more, and is, in the end, somehow unsatisfying. Blogging is the meal, the main course, the sustenance. Sure it is more work. But it is more productive. And more satisfying in the long run.

So will I cut back on the sugar, break out of the easy-ness of social networking  and get back to balancing my self-expression with the more meaningful, satisfying  work of blogging? No promises  here (it’s hard work, after all!) but  if  I  know what’s good for me …