The other day I was searching my blog for a recipe I had not printed when I found some comments from my mom. My mom, who is dead. Luckily, they were not recent comments or I'd have been terrified! They were old comments, usually on the "what did you have for lunch?" posts. Oh man, she LOVED those posts! I quickly forgot about the recipe I was searching for and started noticing all the comments from other people who had passed away in the last decade, strangers who became friends, friends who became strangers, and years of interesting (and silly and sad and brave and funny) discussions. What a treat!
I have kept an online journal for over ten years. In the last year or so, I have read many articles about how blogs are history and nobody reads them. I did stop reading blogs that all began or ended with "sponsored by" but continue to read personal blogs (when time and technology permit). I can see how things would be hard if you relied on your blog to pay your bills. I rely on my blog to keep my memories, thoughts, stories, and experiences all in one place. If nobody read my blog, I would still write it. Nobody reads my handwritten journals but I still write in those, too! It's really freeing to write what you want about your life with no expectation of anything happening. I love sharing my life and my art and when those inspire things other people, it is icing on the cake. Having a decade of comments and interaction from people is such a gift.
I know Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have taken over where blogging left off.
I love Instagram.
I love twitter. I am not so in love with Facebook. I feel like I want to keep my memories and my stories in my own, more intimate space. I feel like every interaction on facebook becomes an opportunity for strangers to friend-request me then request that I like their page. It is like a live classified ads section that waits for you to post then attacks. I love that I can keep up with friends and family on Facebook, so of course I will not be leaving there any time soon. I think I am just making the decision to stay home more, so to speak. Time to change my Facebook settings to somehow more private as soon as I figure out how. I do
not want to close out my friends and at the same time I do want to close out the real estate agents in Nebraska who want me to like their pages, add me to groups, and send me messages offering to show me properties. It just seems like the things I want to see on Facebook are now so far buried under other things that I miss the good stuff.
Are you a Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter lover? What are your thoughts?