Sometimes I do wonder what is to become of all this blogging. It is such a new medium. What does it mean for how one is perceived, for example? When I meet people who say 'oh, yes, I have read your blog' I feel quite embarassed for some reason (maybe it is obvious to you readers out there!). I suppose it is because, even though this is a very impersonal blog as far as blogs go, they know something about me already.
I also perceive a certain contempt for blogging from older people, especially older Christians, who think (with some justification) that blogs are sinkholes for gossip and half-formed thoughts written by people who couldn't accept the discipline of publishing something.
And I do notice that when I encounter someone else who blogs a lot my first instinct is to say 'they clearly don't have enough to do at work!' I am not sure yet that having a blog is a way to be taken very seriously!
I also perceive a certain contempt for blogging from older people, especially older Christians, who think (with some justification) that blogs are sinkholes for gossip and half-formed thoughts written by people who couldn't accept the discipline of publishing something.
And I do notice that when I encounter someone else who blogs a lot my first instinct is to say 'they clearly don't have enough to do at work!' I am not sure yet that having a blog is a way to be taken very seriously!
I am also conscious of the responsibility of the teaching office to which I have been called (in whatever way you understand it): that half-baked thoughts undermine the dignity of the calling somewhat.
Am we just supposed to blog from here to kingdom come? Is that it?
20 comments:
I don't have any clever answers and I certainly don't have "the responsibility of the teaching office" to live up to.
I'm just having fun.
As to when we stop, I think we just stop when we are no longer having fun.
Or in my case, when the dogs wipe out all the ducks and the husband says I can no longer keep replacing them!!!
As for the older Christians worrying about gossip, I wish there was a bit more gossip on my blog. Who's sleeping with who doesn't really count when you're a chicken.
Just to touch on the question of the significance of blogging, I do think blogging makes a difference. It is a way of spreading information around. In many ways it is like democracy spreads authority around. It is also, I would say, a very Reformed sort of anthropological concept: due to the profundity of our sinfulness we cannot be trusted with great power, so you just give a little power to everyone.
It has also had a positive effect in the Middle East.
I think that Web 2.0 (with all that it entails: blogging, social networking, etc.) will probably be a fact of life rather than a novelty before too long, and you should probably not be too angst-ridden about it.
In my line of work, blogs come in for a lot of casual criticism. We had a look at blogs to try to find out what kind of language was used in blogs, what mistakes were made commonly, etc. (This was, I think to find material for a press release.) The anticipation was that the standard of language use would be fairly low. But that wasn't really the case.
So yes, on one hand, I work with people who are fairly critical of blogs. On the other hand, a friend at work is paid to blog about our books.
Ho-hum, this doesn't answer any of your questions about the usefulness of blogs. I certainly don't have much patience for blogs that don't have a coherent theme and drive (unless they are funny), and that don't occasionally try to say something. Most of the bloggers I know write about literature and reading, and I find this entertaining, and at least as useful as the review pages in the newspapers. A couple of the best are here, incidentally:
http://dovegreyreader.typepad.com
and
http://theasylum.wordpress.com/
And for me, I blog more when I'm being lazier at work, yes. And I blog less when I'm going through a dry patch in reading. At the moment I am being industrious and working hard, so it makes fairly poor reading. But for what it's worth, it's here:
http://beccadimery.squarespace.com
I am a strange mixture of mildly pleased and faintly embarrassed when someone says that they have read it.
they know something about me already
this is the question, isn't it? that is, what does it actually mean to 'know something' of someone else?
You have a stats counter. Check how many "unique visitors" you have and see what your average is over 30 days.
That is how many people you are influencing and ministering to.
Well not everyone will want to 'Blog' due to personality, or age differences or whatever.
But if one does Blog and one is a Christian than the responsibility lies in being 'Christlike'especially in how you talk to others or in what you choose to talk about and in how one responds. As in don't be ' 'rude' or self-focused.
A blog is just what it is- a 'blog'- ideas, conversation, shared interests.
It may reflect some of your personality traits, but it doesn't necessarily show your 'heart going ons' For instance to me your blogs reveals that you like people, are gregarious and really like to throw around ideas.
I don't like 'Blogs' when people who say they are X'tns become rude to one another or don't respect people type thing.
The Bible teaches how people should treat one another. Treat others better then yourself, be respectful, be patient, kind, considerate, compassionate.
It isn't just face to face that we are meant to be like that. So if a X'tn chooses to blog than be like that in the cyber world too which is very public.
50-100 years from now if someone wanted to write your biography (hypothetically) they would actually look at your blog from now.Like people look at letters and diaries etc. Now that puts a different perspective on it.
Blogging till kingdom come? So we won't be reading The Blogging Parson in the new creation? It too will pass.
I wouldn't worry too much about it Michael. How different is it from keeping a diary? Except that you self-censor to avoid hurting people, including yourself. I blog mainly for reasons to do with myself, and if others happen to read over my shoulder and enjoy doing so, then that's nice. Personally, I'm not particularly fussed about my own reputation. I suppose if I was, I might keep an e-diary rather than a blog.
Re the older gen's view on blogs...
Surely it's the modernist vs postmodernist influences comming out here. In the good old days teaching/learning/sharing yourself were three seperate activities.
But this "new" model is hardly absent from scripture - Paul preaching all night was never going to be all fully formed, carefully scripted material.
Christian blogs (esp your blogs) often come across as more of a sort of Christian Wisdom literature... they're talking about life and God not as a neat comprehensive funnel argument (though they're obviously terribly well argued within the indevidual units) but finding aspects of the same gospel, the same nature of God in wildly different aspects of life.
Maybe postmodernism is the age of a sort of "ADD spirituality" but if that's what we've got this seems to be a good way of interacting within it.
I also really like the interactive nature of blog theologising - it feels more like the idea of the HS speaking through the church.
I meant to add earlier but forgot: isn't the world full of half-formed thts?
Perhaps yours will get together with mine and form something beautiful. there's something satisfyingly hegelian about that.
hmm. Sorry about all those repeated comments. It was accidental. There's an irony there somewhere, but I'm struggling to put it into wrds.
Mmmm. I've been thinking a bit about this recently too. I often meet people who mention that they have seen my blog and it makes me feel a little awkward. But I still enjoy blogging and hope that it's a worthwhile thing to do. Isn't blogging an expresion of your teaching office in some way?
In just over two years I must have done over 400 posts. If I keep this up for years to come, there will be thousands of the things. That's a bit worrying. I suppose that one day I'll have to do a LAST POST and find another hobby like collecting rare ants or something. But not just yet.
I think there's sense in the comment that blogs are (at least for the time being) becoming a fact of life, but blogging is pretty clearly a mixed phenomenon. Just because one can't support straightforward contempt of the form, one shouldn't discount all the concerns you raised.
My own blog's title tries to declare an intent to give words due weight, as well as raising an eyebrow at the form (and at myself). This, for now, is how I'm making peace with it. I actually have no problem with whimsy in blogs: on the contrary, the form seems well-suited to it. But that's not a game I'm fitted to play, even though I can enjoy watching it sometimes. What I cannot stand, however, is laziness and bile that justifies itself under the head of personal expression ... and the blogosphere is rife with this sort of thing. A concern should be expressed here, but it's not clear to me how best to do it.
This xkcd cartoon seems somehow appropriate. (Thanks Bruce for putting me onto it.)
When I meet someone for the first time who says that they read my blog, I panic. What are we going to talk about now that they already know all my hobby-horses?
And perhaps a little less blogging and a little more shaving might help some your anxieties. :-)
Evan Andersen
After 8 sleepless nights of blogging, life began to change. This para universe of virtual being came to life. I understand the world, its shortcomings and its greatnesses. Evan Andersen feels enlighted today as we approach the shortest days ahead.
Evan Andersen
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