But the evidence is quite to the contrary. People will likely not find out, unless they go searching. It's well established that almost all blogs have 1 reader - the author. I wrote a blog for several years and struggled to develop a regular readership of more than 20 or so readers. Of course, it's foolish to expect anything one writes online to remain private, but I think the "public" nature of blogs is only theoretical in most cases. You may foolishly dress in front of the window, but nobody is looking in.
I think the difficulty in raising an audience is the reason that blogs are no longer as popular as they were around the turn of the century. (And this is the problem with a genre analysis of such a new genre - by the time people read it, it's out of date!) Since they are more likely to garner much larger audience son sites like Facebook, where are friends are already spending hours every day, many no longer see the need to "blog." (I suppose one could see this as a Darwinian development as Facebook has subsumed the blog as the primary sharing genre because it is more "fit.")
On the other hand, there is a new(ish) kind of blog that is a lot more like the earliest blogs that Miller and Shepherd describe - the lightly annotated link or picture list. This is the genre that Tumblr seems to have filled. There is very little writing on Tumbr - it's more of a place to share pictures and links. Tumblr users follow one another and in a way, Tumblr is its own social network just like earlier blog communities like LiveJournal. But Tumblr and communities like it are not so much venues for ideas, narrative, and debate as much as they are venues for thoughts, photographs, and occasional musings. (Come to think of it, Tumblr is essentially a fat Twitter.)
Dan, I didn't realize that blogging has actually been on the decline over the past decade. It appears that so many specialists have their own site though. One of the catchphrases I hear at social gatherings and Education City functions is, "You should check out my blog."
ReplyDeleteIt would be interesting to research exactly how private (and how public) blogs are, as well as to explore what kind of genre they claim to use (wanderlust, second language acquisition, a growing baby, or all of the above). I think more than anything your post shows me that I need to explore others' blogs more and see what my peers are doing...and if it would be a good idea to create my own version of it. What purpose does it serve? What niche does it fill?
The annotated link / picture list sounds a lot more accessible and less text-heavy than previous blog incarnations, hence more popular. That having been said, it seems to be a very good idea to create one with professional interests so that great minds could cross-pollinate.