Greetings all and welcome to my fair and neglected blog!
I've been having blogger guilt lately, but not the usual blogger guilt. You know, the guilt that says, "You should write more book reviews! You should have clever features and pretty pictures and stop planning to do bloggy community things and then failing to follow through!" I know if I applied myself, and sacrificed some Netflix time, I could fill this blog with lovely content. What's been bothering me lately isn't that I'm not really doing a stellar job of blogging but more that I'm doing an even worse job of commenting. I might be able to fire a post or two off into the void every now and then, but I've been dreadful about commenting back, meeting new people, everything except fulfilling the bare obligation to breathe life into my languishing blog once in a while. Happily I have a few stalwart commenters that despite my considerable lack as a blogger, don't leave me alone to shout about books into nothingness. (Thanks, guys!!)
Anyhow, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one in this boat. It seems like half the blogs I visit have so few comments these days. I sometimes feel like we (er...I?) traded in book blogging community for shouting into the emptiness in the name of getting a few new books. That or we're so overwhelmed by the wealth of social media that we've traded in trying to have meaningful blog exchanges with each other for 140 character chatter or that perfectly posed coffee and a book picture on Instagram.
This was nowhere more apparent to me than when the decision was made to no longer cheerlead on blogs for the 24 Hour Readathon and only do the cheering on Twitter. There's nothing wrong with Twitter cheerleading (I've done it, it's fun, especially late in the evening when everybody's getting punchy), and I mean no offense to the organizers who do such a great job of wrangling such a large event into submission. Alas, when I saw that, a part of me felt like a little bit of the heart fell out of the Readathon. It was too time consuming, too difficult for us to engage one another on the very social media that spawned the Dewey's Readathon to begin with....blogs. Book blogs.
I wish I could say I handled myself maturely, but the most maturity I could muster was to not sign up to cheer and if I couldn't say something nice, I decided I would say nothing at all. Today I was all ready to whip up some primo content (read: a few clumsily worded book reviews), and I said to myself as I too often do these days..."Self, what's the point of writing these reviews if you're going to carry on being such a half-assed member of the book blogging community?"
At that point, instead of dejectedly going to clean the bathroom or some other only marginally rewarding domestic chore that I claim takes up so much of my time that I can hardly spare the time to write blog posts....instead of that, I had an idea. I daresay it may even be a good idea. In fact, this post was supposed to actually embody the fruit of that idea, but it's already grown too long under the weight of my musings, so you may have to wait a day or two to see....Choose Your Own (Commenting) Adventure! A way for me to plug myself back into the book blogosphere, put a fire under my butt to comment more, and have content for my blog!
Instead of being constrained by the dutiful emptying of my Feedly, another place where blogging fun becomes a joyless obligation, I decided to leave a comment on the first post in my reader this morning that had a comment, then visit the first commenter on that post and so on until I had visited 10 blogs linked by their commenters. Admittedly, I cheated a bit to keep my journey in the book blogosphere and out of niches where I genuinely didn't have much to say.
Tomorrow or the next day, I plan to write up my short adventure around the blogosphere in that old "blog carnival" style. Just a little link and a blurb for everyone I visited (in addition to my comments on their actual blogs). It was great fun - I really read people's posts instead of just skimming them on my phone. I thought of something at least semi-worthwhile to say to each. I found a bunch of new to me blogs and stopped by a few old friends. With any luck, it's something I'll start doing and writing about on a regular basis. With any luck, maybe a few folks will join me in choosing their own commenting adventure.
What do you think? Is commenting and feeling like a part of the larger book blogging community something you struggle with?
This sounds like a lot of fun to me. I'm in the same boat as you but probably a bit further out to sea as I've been having difficulty committing to blogging and commenting for years now. I can't way to see what you've come up with.
ReplyDeleteIt's good to you see you around again! =) I'm definitely not the most committed blogger myself, but I'm an even more wretched commenter. I'm hoping this will help me reform, and enjoy it!
DeleteCommenting is definitely something I struggle with...I so miss "the days of Dewey," and I'll admit it's hard for me, like you, to get into Twitter. I feel so lost at sea sometimes there and elsewhere in the book blogging community. Ironically, I found this post via Twitter. :)
ReplyDeleteOh irony! LOL! There's definitely a time and a place for Twitter, but I'd never be able to keep up with it all the time. I miss the Dewey days when book bloggers were few enough in number that I probably knew all of them, at least in passing. But then, the new days are interesting too because there seems to be no end to the number of faithful book bloggers I have yet to discover!
DeleteCommenting is definitely something I struggle with...I so miss "the days of Dewey," and I'll admit it's hard for me, like you, to get into Twitter. I feel so lost at sea sometimes there and elsewhere in the book blogging community. Ironically, I found this post via Twitter. :)
ReplyDeleteI still try to comment daily on blogs but as my Reader thins out, I haven't added more blogs so I know I don't comment on as many. I agree that we have so much other social media vying for our attention now that it's become harder but I cut back on Twitter instead.
ReplyDeleteI cut Twitter out almost completely but for auto posting the links to my posts there. Instagram's my "lazy" social media of choice. I see your comments all over the place. Thank you for being such a faithful commenter even if you might not be covering as much ground as you used to!
DeleteI hear you! I feel overwhelmed by the choices and platforms and have let the joy of book blogging/commenting get replaced by trying to be in too many places. Like Bryan, I linked here from Twitter. I almost commented via Twitter too!
ReplyDeleteLOL! You can't beat Twitter for getting the word out of about something, but I still like my base of operations to be here in "old fashioned" blogland. Trying to do too much in too many places definitely sucks the joy the joy out, but here's to refocusing and trying to put some of the joy back in. Thanks for stopping by!
DeleteOh, this sounds wonderful! Blog commenting really has become sad. I miss the good old days!
ReplyDeleteMe too! You would think that if I'm doing a shoddy job of blogging, I would at least be making a little extra time for commenting...not so much. Reversing the trend starts now!
DeleteLOVE this idea! I'm still pretty good about replying to comments on my own blog, but pretty lax with other people's. I do think part of that's due to to social media, but for me, reading blogs on mobile contributes too (some platforms are not tablet-friendly for commenting!).
ReplyDeleteI'm planning to share this on Twitter, but it would have been wrong not to comment on it first :-).
Reading blogs on my phone is definitely a part of my problem. There's a T.S. Eliot poem about that isn't there? "Between the Keep Unread and the comment falls the shadow..." ;-)
DeleteI've definitely noticed a lack of commenting in the last few years. If I weren't already writing my blog mostly for myself, I might have been tempted to give it up. I mean, what's the point if no one's reading it, right? I love that you have come up with a great idea to turn this around. I'll be interested to see what comes of it.
ReplyDeleteBlogging definitely loses a little of its charm if you feel like you're doing it in a vacuum. No matter how much I say "I'm doing it for me!" there's always a tiny corner of my brain that is saddened by a total lack of response to a post.
DeleteHope the comment adventures catch on!
I didn't even have any social media accounts before I started blogging (except Facebook, where I only friended my immediate family), so I really struggle with it. Plus I prefer to have the comments on the actual posts, so they are there for people who find the post later.
ReplyDeleteP.S. - I just added you to my RSS feed
I prefer comments on actual posts, too. I wouldn't have half of the social media accounts I have if it weren't for blogging, but even having them there's only one I really use with any regularity (Instagram). I like coming back to the source (blogs!). Thanks for stopping by and for the add!
DeleteI've never been on Instagram. I don't even know where my camera is, or how to use the one in my phone. I'm that person who goes on vacation and comes home without a single picture to show anyone.
DeleteI definitely used to be that person who would come home from vacation without a single picture. I was always like "I'd rather be present and just remember it!" Alas, I kind of fell in love with the convenience of taking pictures on my phone, and it's fun to look back at the stuff I've managed to post on Instagram.
DeleteMy problem is that I stink at taking pictures.
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