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The Death of Blogs? Let’s Not Be Melodramatic.

October 3rd, 2007 | blogging, writing

Just before he presented on blogging at the Religion Newswriter’s Association, Ted Olsen posted “The Death of Blogs” over at Christianity Today.

It’s a good information article, and Olsen concedes in the subhead that only “some of them” are dying. He also quotes our new director of Laity Lodge, Mark D. Roberts. (I helped carry his desk into the office today. Whew!)

Mark D. Roberts, one of the most prominent “pastor bloggers,” went the other direction, announcing that he was leaving his pulpit at Irvine (Ca.) Presbyterian Church to become senior director at the Laity Lodge retreat in Texas. “My blog now becomes a part of my primary work,” he told his congregation.

Still, I have to disagree strongly with this assessment from Olsen:

What tired bloggers are increasingly discovering, however, is that it’s not necessarily the quality of their blog posts that matter. It’s matching their quality with frequency.

Sure, some folks want to change the world on a blog, and they’ll need to become a personal media empire to do it. But there are all kinds of blogs. And many bloggers (like me) treat their work as part of a much larger conversation.

Blogging is a marathon, not a sprint. That means it takes a long time to demonstrate the perseverance of posting twice a week. A conversational blog’s readership will be different than TechCrunch or even CT’s blog.

But blogging is much more complicated than many people are willing to recognize. It is the easiest, cheapest (and potentially the most powerful) form of user-generated content. Let’s not get stuck in the false dichotomy of hyperactivity or death.

Between those two extremes is a lot of room for humble bloggers engaging in authentic conversation.

Viewing 12 Comments

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    From "Goodbye, Blog" (May/June 2006), Alan Jacobs wrote in Books & Culture. "Right now, and for the foreseeable future, the blogosphere is the friend of information but the enemy of thought,"

    I don’t share his sentiments. You could say the same about a lot of things, but it really depends on how you use them. I believe that blogging has actually made me a better thinker, as I strive to communicate appropriately to different communities.

    Do some people get tired? Yes. Do some people turn blogging into a brain crutch, and think less? Sure, but I still think the “enemy of thought” concept is overused. (I hope that doesn’t sound cranky or disrespectful, I’m just sharing my opinion.)
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    Oh, funny. I'll be linking to his article soon too. Because I have one of my own coming up on Today's Christian sometime in the next week (I think), and I want to see how the conversation will go.

    Some people will do anything to get in on the conversation, even if they don't blog. (I'm thinking T.O. doesn't blog, due to the way the CT article was composed? Just a guess.)
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    Just got the news. It's up! And so is my companion post: "Blogging is a Waste of Time."
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    Yeah, why would non-bloggers talk about blogging anyway? Sheesh. (Not really as disgruntled as I sound.)

    But I am dismayed to hear that Dr. Jacobs (of my alma mater) is such a blog-cynic.
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    Craver, I think traditional publishers feel especially threatened by bloggers. I don't think they really are, they're just maybe having a confidence problem that blogs are going to supplant books and culture.

    L.L., Olsen is actually a blogger himself. Sort of. He's a good guy, but his experience with blogging is quite a bit different from most. Not community based in the same way.

    Jenn, people like to be prophets of doom, you know? I wouldn't be too hard on the anti-bloggers. It still feels like the wild west out here. On my bad days, I can be a blog-cynic too. : )
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    Oops. Open mouth, insert bloggy foot. Now, tell me where he sort of blogs. I'm curious to know more.
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    Here's Ted's official bio at Tidings:
    Ted Olsen is news director and online managing editor of Christianity Today. He has been writing the magazine's online Weblog—a collection of news and opinion articles from mainstream news sources around the world—since 1999. In 2004, the paper version of the magazine launched Weblog in Print, which looks for unexpected connections and trends in articles appearing in the mainstream press. The column was renamed "Tidings" in mid-2006 and now runs monthly.

    In the meantime, Ted still contributes sometimes to what they now call CTliveblog. Here's his latest post there.
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    Interesting article and post, Marcus. Timely, too, as I was just talking with a friend about his blog and the difficulty he's been having with consistently posting. (He asked me to hold him accountable to posting weekly). The conversation ended with me asking him the reason he wanted to blog. Without having a compelling (to him) purpose, I said, I didn't see why he would be motivated to post. I think in the end that determines whether your blog lives or dies.
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    spaghettipie, I agree completely. The weird thing is when I don't understand why I feel compelled to keep posting. I just do. So I post.
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    Mark, this is interesting in light of what I've been ... well, blogging about the last couple days. The real focus is on writers building a platform but it came out of an article about blogging addiction. (Hmmm, did you just say you feel compelled to post??)

    Interestingly, I've found blogging (and discussion boards) to be VERY thought-provoking. I've exchanged ideas with people I would never have had the opportunity to talk to in face-to-face life. In some cases, those "conversations" have gone a long way to forming my opinion about what I believe to be true about Christian fiction, art, theology.

    If nothing else, what others say challenge my ideas, so I either have to understand them and undergird them or I have to abandon them.

    I do think creating a community helps. Lots of times I get post material from someone's response to what I've written.

    I think people might "dry up" as bloggers, but I suspect they are a) not getting feedback; b) receiving only atta-boy feedback; or c) not reading challenging posts from other bloggers.

    Becky
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    I think that I also feel compelled - just not as often as you - to blog. Not really sure why but since it wells up in me like an itch that needs to be scratched, and I have prayed about it - I'm assuming that's the Holy Spirit - although what He is doing and why He would do it through a blog is beyond me!
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    I think what we're really seeing is the death of pontificating in major publications. People don't trust these kinds of things anymore. So you have to be more and more extreme in what you write. I don't think anyone's listening. And there will be no accountability when it turns out to be wrong, and it will.
 

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