Storytelling, not journalism, spurs most blogs
Thought I’d just share this an interesting article on blogging in the US:
Many people see Web journals, or blogs, as alternatives to the
mainstream media, but most Americans who run them do so as a hobby
rather than a vocation, according to a report released on Wednesday. Read more…
When you’ve read it, why not come back and share why you blog?
technorati tags: the future now, blogging
July 19th, 2006 at 3:58 pm
I blog, pardon me, I “vox” because I’ve always wanted to live in the kind of neighborhood idealized by the children’s television shows of my youth. You know, a place where people wave to each other and smile. Where neighbors sit down for a cup and a good conversation. I’m looking for a place where the folks across the street are Kenyan, the next door neighbor is Mandarin, the nice man who runs the corner store is Puerto Rican … and the grumpy old chain smoking gardener who no one really likes but who everyone feels sorry for because he mows all of our lawns is, of course, French (sorry, let that one get away from me I’m afraid).
All of this to say, I want a chance at community and connection with the greater world of people, ideas, and experiences, but I want it close by, and within reach.
This is one of the crucial benefits that this new connectivity affords me. I love it.
July 19th, 2006 at 5:06 pm
It’s an interesting article to bring up if for no other reason than it demonstrates that we’re headed into new waters that established groups are still coming to terms with.
Many times when I read studies or news stories about blogging there is still the assumption that people approach blogging with a common end goal and that this is simply the world of new media.
With so many thinking as Dean does though, it makes sense that only a small percentage of people would act as true news outlets. After all, we’re not that surprised that only a small percentage of businesses are newspapers.
Any thoughts on how the blogging experience is different in the UK?
July 19th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
My reasons for blogging have changed over the two years I’ve been doing so.
I started because I was moving to Chicago over the summer to do a church internship. A friend who was already a blogger encouraged me to start. She said it would be easier for my friends to look at my blog than for me to try emailing everyone separately, but that it was more interactive than a mass email and so felt more personal. She was right.
So why did I keep it up after I got back? Well, about that time my friends started to graduate from college and move away. Turns out the friends who read it the most while I was in Chicago, wound up far from Cincinnati: Florida. Washington D.C. Etc.
Is that still my reason for blogging– to keep in touch with friends in the “real world?” It was. Until my Aunt Lori introduced me to this blog called Into the Mystic. Huh. Here was a guy from California, posting stories about something he called the Mystic. And these stories sounded so familiar that I thought maybe I had read them before. Or even written them in a past life. So I kept reading. And then I started weighing in on a few conversations.
And then one day everything changed: this Alex guy invited me to Vox. Both the noun and the verb. And once I moved my web log to Voxtropolis, I gradually found that the people who were reading and posting on my Vox were not just friends from the “real” world. Increasingly they lived in other parts of the country and world. Increasingly they were very different from me. And increasingly I had never met them face to face. But they still felt like neighbors, and we were still able to have meaningful dialogues.
I can’t remember now how I found Parke from Texas or Sam from Sheffield or Deana from Colorado. But they’re friends and neighbors nevertheless. I care about their stories. And I care to tell them mine. So that’s why I vox. I feel connected. Like the story I’m telling is the same story everyone else is telling; a collective story. That’s why I include songs from popular culture and news articles about other countries. The whole earth is part of one big basket under the big blue sky that is still being woven togther. My Vox is my little piece of the basket.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:06 am
Wow, those are some great reflections guys! Thanks for taking the time to share.
One of the things that I have come to notice as a result of blogging (voxing!) is that my interactions with friends (who often I’ve never met) on VOX are more frequent than with many of my friends within the UK, and even Sheffield. And in that sense it really is like a neighbourhood. In days gone by, neighbours were part of our everyday lives. VOX seems to bring that aspect of life back in a whole new way.
I love the diversity of people that I bump into walking around VOX too. I keep track of all the visitors to my VOX and people from something like 20 different nations have stopped by. I love that.
I love too that friendships haven’t been limited to the world of virtual reality. Meeting Dean, Tina, and Jason in London in January was the first of these virtual to physical relationships. Then Alex - also in London - in April. Then Steve and Deana coming to stay with us in Newport Coast. And then more than I have time to list when we turned up in LA in May. And ahead into the future, Steve and Deana will be coming to stay with us in Sheffield in September and then in January 2008 we are hoping to hook up with Hermann and Adel in Johannesburg. It’s amazing to think that just a few years ago, these relationships would never have happened. Virtual reality has created a whole new world of physical reality.
I think for me, I’ve just found the virtual world of blogging, and VOX in particular, to be a real enrichment to my physical, “real world” life. I feel like I’ve been encouraged to engage more deeply with the physical world around me rather than it being some kind of escapism from the real world, as some people worry about. I engage with VOX because I feel my life is richer for the diversity of people I connect with. I enjoy friendships that previously have never been possible. And, I definitely don’t blog because of any ambitions to be a wannabe journalist!
July 20th, 2006 at 12:08 pm
Unrelated comment -
Sam, I want you to know that I am liking all the new Voxscapes! Great job!
July 20th, 2006 at 12:58 pm
Thanks Danielle! And good to have you stop by my VOX.
When are you and Joe going to visit the UK?! I told Joe in May that you’d both be very welcome to visit us here in sunny Sheffield if you ever come. (Ok, it’s not normally sunny here…we’re just in a heat wave right now…happens every 20 years or so!)
July 20th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
JVD did tell me about the Radford’s offer for us to come visit the UK :). Don’t be surprised if we take you up on it! I have recently become more aware of my affinity for the UK. My all-time favorite singers are from the UK (Peter Gabriel, Sting, Dido, Coldplay (and I can go on and on….) And I have been a total Jane Austen fan since I first read Pride and Prejudice at 14…..all to say, we might be bumping UK (and “sunny” Sheffield) to the top of our list of places to travel to in the next year or so. Besides, Joseph has been to London twice, Danielle 0 times….we really have to work on that.
July 20th, 2006 at 8:34 pm
You should take us up on it! Also, we are just a 20 minute drive from where they filmed much of the latest version of Pride and Prejudice. (Here’s Rachel’s post from a recent visit to Darcy’s house - real name Chatsworth House - : http://rachel.voxtropolis.com/2006/06/11/a-picnic-with-mr-darcy/)
London’s aright too!
July 20th, 2006 at 9:22 pm
I blog and vox for two reasons:
The first is to get my ideas and writings out. I’m a naturally shy person, so telling people my thoughts is difficult. The irony is that instead of sharing it with someone I know, I’m sharing what I think with potentially millions of people… that’s kind of freaky.
The second is for conversation. After my thoughts are exposed, I like to get other’s opinions on them. To develop my ideas and beliefs with others in online community. I love to ask questions and search for answers. It just works better with people in a public forum.
I love the freedom of communication involved with the whole Weblog experience, above all it has given me the chance to “speak” my mind freely and without hesitation.
I can’t ever go back.
July 20th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
I vox because I’m afraid the thoughts inside my brain would explode my head wide open if I didn’t get them out somehow.
VOX is a safe zone where I’ve met new friends and found new insights.
July 26th, 2006 at 2:49 pm
Sam
I wish I had more time to blog. I love writing. I write a lot in my job and enjoy developing teaching material. I would love to be a writer one day. I love my journal and enjoy writing rather than typing.
When I blog I write in a rush, I should work on that!
I blog, because I want to be a writer.
Take care,
July 27th, 2006 at 6:43 pm
Hermann, you need a scanner that can read your handwriting then?!
Good to hear from you!