Blogging/Social Media

I don't blog much anymore.  Most of my attention is focused on Facebook.  And so the things that might warrant a whole fleshed-out blogpost get condensed into short Status Updates.  I didn't even realize you could make longer, blog-type Status Updates until I started reading the ones posted by former-Monkee Mike Nesmith.  You should read this guy's stuff!  It's great.  (And thanks to Hal Johnson for turning me on to "Nez's" FB page.)

I'm conflicted as to how long blogposts should be.  Some people make them as long as magazine articles (see "A Different Perspective," a blog about UFO's by prolific author, Kevin Randle).  On the other hand, I try to keep each blogpost to 700 words or so...you know, the length of one of those editor's columns in the front of a magazine.  That's about the limit of my own attention span.  But sometimes they do run on.  I wish I could write short-and-to-the-point but I just can't. 

More than that, I'm not at all sure what a blog should be.  They're typically not news - they're not replacing newspapers as our primary source of information.  Sometimes they're just full of bullshit opinions by anonymous so-and-so's.  They might be interesting at first, but without knowing who the writer is, their internet scribblings get old.  At least to me. 

"Real" writers like George Will, Kathleen Parker, and (until recently) the Pensacola News Journal's Carl Wernicke all have published bios and bodies of work that let the reader know who they are - and more importantly why their opinions are worth reading.  It is why the blogs I read regularly are ones where the author puts his/her own name and picture on it.  But a blogger who's not even proud enough of his work to put his name on it...  Ehhh, why should I care?  Why should anyone?

Unless the blog is just "creative writing."  I don't mind reading fiction once in a while.  Fiction can be anonymous.  Who cares?  The aforementioned Keven Randle has written dozens of books; mostly using his own name, but many of them are fiction stories published under a different name.  Which is fine.  However, for authoritative writing and authenticity and respect, I want accountability.  You probably do too.  If you're going to take my opinions seriously then you should know who I am.  The good and bad thing about the internet is that it gives every genius and idiot a voice to be heard.  Figuring out who is who is the tough part. 

I suspect that soon this blog will eventually migrate over to Facebook where it'll force me to be more concise.  Plus, it's easier to upload pictures with a post.  And I'd reach more people.  My blog only generates about 50-60 "hits" per day.  But I've got 100 Facebook "friends" who would be subjected to my rantings whether they liked to or not.  On the other hand, I do get a lot of people coming to the blog from Google searches. You'd be surprised at how many people type in "Sportster girl's bike" on Google and come to THIS story about just that subject.

We'll see.  Maybe I'll keep writing these bullshit little stories, if for no other reason than it gives me an outlet to get stuff down on the record so I can look back one day and go, "Ohhhhhh yeah, I remember that."