Saturday, January 21, 2012
How Few Remain
When I started blogging in 2003, I considered myself a relative latecomer. Several of my friends had established online journals during college, but during that time I was content to comment on their thoughts rather than post any of my own. That changed when I started teaching and found myself, more than ever before, yearning for a place to record my thoughts and share them with my family and friends. And so I staked out this little patch of Internet real estate and the rest, as they say, is history.
One fun part of blogging, and arguably something that kept me writing with somewhat greater regularity during those early years, was being part of a larger community of people who read and commented on each other's work. Some of these were high school or college friends, others were people with a shared interest in teaching, and a few were just well-intentioned readers who had stumbled upon this site and enjoyed what they found. Over time, however, these numbers dwindled. People who had once been regular contributors, both to their own blogs and this one, started to find other ways to pass the time. Some got married or had children, others simply moved on to bigger and better things. Even after I implemented comments in an attempt to muster up some participation, it seemed like another case of "too little, too late." The blogging wave had passed, eclipsed by other forms of social media that were less time-consuming.
Obviously, this has not stopped me from continuing to post, albeit at a somewhat diminished rate, my thoughts about life as an academic. But I can't force anyone else to do the same. To reflect the changing contours of my personal blogosphere, I have therefore taken it upon myself to winnow down the Invisible Blogroll. Among the sites removed this time around are some run by my closest friends and some by people I have never met. I've never been too keen on change, and I confess that it saddens me to see how few links remain on this list. Still, it is possible that some of those removed might revive their websites and begin posting more regularly, in which case it will be my pleasure to restore their presence on this site. Until then, however, time marches on and so does the Invisible Ben...
When I started blogging in 2003, I considered myself a relative latecomer. Several of my friends had established online journals during college, but during that time I was content to comment on their thoughts rather than post any of my own. That changed when I started teaching and found myself, more than ever before, yearning for a place to record my thoughts and share them with my family and friends. And so I staked out this little patch of Internet real estate and the rest, as they say, is history.
One fun part of blogging, and arguably something that kept me writing with somewhat greater regularity during those early years, was being part of a larger community of people who read and commented on each other's work. Some of these were high school or college friends, others were people with a shared interest in teaching, and a few were just well-intentioned readers who had stumbled upon this site and enjoyed what they found. Over time, however, these numbers dwindled. People who had once been regular contributors, both to their own blogs and this one, started to find other ways to pass the time. Some got married or had children, others simply moved on to bigger and better things. Even after I implemented comments in an attempt to muster up some participation, it seemed like another case of "too little, too late." The blogging wave had passed, eclipsed by other forms of social media that were less time-consuming.
Obviously, this has not stopped me from continuing to post, albeit at a somewhat diminished rate, my thoughts about life as an academic. But I can't force anyone else to do the same. To reflect the changing contours of my personal blogosphere, I have therefore taken it upon myself to winnow down the Invisible Blogroll. Among the sites removed this time around are some run by my closest friends and some by people I have never met. I've never been too keen on change, and I confess that it saddens me to see how few links remain on this list. Still, it is possible that some of those removed might revive their websites and begin posting more regularly, in which case it will be my pleasure to restore their presence on this site. Until then, however, time marches on and so does the Invisible Ben...
Comments:
I'm not the biggest facebook fan, so I really appreciate the friends I have who blog regularly. Actually that may just be you! Anyway I do appreciate it. Keep on keeping on!
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