February 10, 2009

The Unblogpost

I was going to blog about my adventures in Music Education – until a local institution quoted me more than three time the going rate for a tech course. Now I’m re-evaluating my plans for the year. Then, I thought about blogging on the travails of being an expat who gets overcharged and what that […]

Then, I thought about blogging on the travails of being an expat who gets overcharged and what that is all about. But, that subject is so old and tired.

Which got me wondering about my last post and how much fun it was to load up a film review, even if no-one left a comment.

And that, inevitably led me to thinking about the whole blog/comment/twitter/identity/web2.0 thing.

So, I just wound up with not much to say and submitting another blog about blogging. Maybe it should be called meta-blogging…

Tagged Blogging, Daily Life, Education, Expatriate Life, Film, Globalisation, Hong Kong, Music Technology

Toni 15 years ago

The whole comments thing has rather died over the last year or so, hasn’t it?

What I’m finding is that often now I don’t have the energy or enthusiasm to comment when there’s stuff I just mostly disagree about or where it will require major energy, 30 min consideration and careful construction of an answer. And even where I do agree, in the case of your blog it *feels* like it deserves all that energy and time, rather than my preferred ‘shoot from the hip’ approach.

So with the bolt thing, I didn’t particularly agree (having not seen the film) but it wasn’t an issue that was wrth commenting on.

I’d say that, for me, I’d have liked blogging to become the kind of social networking that sites like facebook have become. In fact I’d link that drop in the level of commenting directly to the rise of the social network site in popularity and functionality (it never lets you forget a birthday!). And then there is the rise of the professional blog, which has taken something away from blogging as a social system. Then there’s Twitter, which is the trash-end of blogging.

Interesting. I’ve shot from the hip and said much more than I meant to.

I predict blogging will shrink to a ‘hard core’ of amateurs and a bunch of professionals. Facebook et al will have killed it.

Jason Clark 15 years ago

Have you seen https://www.ht2009.org/dates.php

What do you do when everyone has a phone, and everyone is talking, and no-one is listening…seems we’ve reached an apogee for social media, and using it for something really creative, is where my interest is going.

We’re all broadcasters now, alas

Jenelle 15 years ago

I love my trash blogging twitter.unblogs are healthy.

Nothing personal Jenelle. I just hate the txt spk that it encourages and the way it seems to stunt ideas as they begin to grow.

Fernando Gros 15 years ago

Toni – I just had a skim through my twitter page and there is almost no txt-language in sight. Not just from me, but also from the folks I read. Of course, brevity is king. But, a lot of the posting is more cohate (and a lot more helpful) than much of the forum banter of places like HC et al.

I agree, however, that social networking is hitting blogging. That might not be all bad. Twitter is a better format for blogging for a lot of people, especially for sharing links without much commentary Facebook though is a walled garden that is increasing succumbing to randomness.

Jason – For sure! I’ve been saying for a long time that we are all publishers now. I still think that’s good, as long as we stop and read everyone else’s output now and then. As much as I love the digital revolution, the lack of collaboration makes me feel uneasy. The new projects, sites and initiatives I see are still so regional and territorial that sometimes it feels like we haven’t really moved that far at all – at least on a practical level.

Jenelle – I finished my theology degree 11.5 years ago. Back then, most of my peers didn’t have email or even much of an internet connection in their rooms/homes. I was one of only two students who had a webpage and my college encouraged people to not post stuff online. Can’t help but wonder how things like blogging and twitter could have enhanced that theological experience.

To the best of my knowledge I’ve never seen a twit from you, and wasn’t aware of you having a twitter page. Oh happy ignorance. As for sensible posting, a forum is more like a conversation, so comments like ‘HNGD’ and ‘show us your maps’ make sense in context.

Actually, I would say Twitter is far more like a conversation than forums. Sure, the 140 character limit is totally artificial. But, in what real world conversations do people speak at each other in 5-10 minute soliloquies?

I guess we could go at this a long time.

No-one, strictly speaking, has a conversation in writing, really. And often in HC (and other fora I’ve used) it’s sometimes hard to get your comment on the same page day to speed of comment flow – this used to be a real problem when I still had dialup.

Each to their own. You like Jazz too. 😉

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