Business is Ruining Online Writing
15 Nov
When I started writing back in 1915 or some such year blogging was the name given to what is now often referred to as online content production.
I, like 60,000,000 other early adopters of this new technology blogged and was proud of it.
There were blog buttons to clutter up my site, and blog traffic programs that didn’t really work, and blog awards and blog parties and..well, I don’t know if there were actually blog parties. I never was asked to attend one if there were.
But being a blogger was fun. You connected to other bloggers all over the world. You shared ideas and life stories. You made tons of invisible friends.And not just because most of us were fat.
And then the inevitable happened.
In 1940 or something, some businessman or businesswoman, or perhaps a businessanimal ( the historical facts aren’t clear on this), decided that they could leverage all the bloggers and make money by tricking them into clicking on ads for useless products and services. And they eventually took over the blog world and left a trail of bitter and broken writers in their wake.
Now, returning to the online writing world I see that it is overrun by these same business types.
Finding actual people who just write about their lives or to share ideas is almost impossible.
Everyone seems to have jumped on the profit model of blogging.
Everyone seems to want to make money from their site.
I like reading about people’s lives. It makes mine more tolerable to know that others share my happiness about things or share my pain when things aren’t going well.
I like to feel connected.
There are other forms of online communications of course.
I have a Twitter account that I use pretty much daily. It seems pointless at the moment but life doesn’t always need to have a point.
And I had a personal Facebook account that I just recently deleted when a few of my friends became obsessed with updating me on their Mafia Wars and Farm game info.
But all these sites seem to have been created with the same intention and by the same business people who were looking for other avenues to make profits for themselves.
I don’t usually swear online but I can’t help myself this time.
!#$%#!$% business people !#$%!#$and your annoying%!%!% stupid 1%!%!%!%.
You $%&$%&^&* also.
And also @%^$@& jerks.
And @^@$%^45 your %$#!%…
Anyways, sorry for that outburst. I just am passionate about the subject or something. Actually I may have just felt like swearing. Who knows what I think. Well, not me anyways.
Back to just writing content..
So today’s question is:
1) Do you find it hard to find good personal writing on the internet these days?
Editor’s note: I said I don’t have a Facebook account and at the time I wrote this I didn’t.
I had a personal Facebook account for a while but it drove me nuts.
I have now signed up with Facebook for an account which is related to my blog. A Happy and Blue 2 account.
I’m sure it’s out there. Not that I’ve tried finding it. Well, other than your site(s) and a few others I used to follow closely. But you’re right, some of them sold out, and even if they write something personal, it’s with a hidden sales pitch underneath. I even wrote to one of my old blog friends and told them why I wasn’t going to be visiting their site anymore for just that reason. I have a few friends, though, who still know how to craft a well-written story/post, one who I think you might actually enjoy, but I’d have to send you the link via email.
Maybe you should start a campaign to win back true bloggers.
I’m taking a bit of a break from the personal blogging. Not that I was burnt out but I’m enjoying being my own publisher with a niche blog. It isn’t rolling in cash but I’m trying new things and I always like that.
I do think there is a lot of business and marketing in blogging now. But, I think it will wear off when they find something else that works for them. Once they do, blogging will be forgotten. Kind of like ASCII art, once the marketing – get rick quick types can’t use it to make a buck they leave the ruins behind to sink or swim. Some things have sunk but a very few have kept going, even morphed into something more interesting.
Tonight I am sleepy from a children’s birthday party. Children go well with cake, should you wonder. But I am waiting for a new friend on Yahoo Messenger. There is an example of something which survived the marketing gurus and kept going, online chat.
Anyway, Happy Monday.
I don’t really care all that much if there are ads on a site. I don’t click on them anyways.
I think the concern I have is more related to finding people who still write (blog)that aren’t just trying to sell me the secret to making money online.
When I blogged before people either blogged, emailed or IM’d people outside their immediate circle of friends/family.
Now, there is Twitter, Facebook, and based on the buttons on the top of my theme over 100 other social media sites to chose from.
Finding the type of content I am looking for has just become harder..