When I started out as a blogger I was a little hesitant to really dig into the idea of a glorified online diary. What’s the point of sharing these posts with people may or may not even know? Who cares? After giving it a go primarily as a method of communicating my goings-on with those I left behind when living in Orlando, I found myself thinking like a blogger. If I did something cool or came across something interesting I instantly started thinking “oh I need to get this up on my blog!” and started thinking what I wanted to say before I even got to my computer. My life soon became a string of events that where justified solely by an online presence. If I did something, I did it to blog about it later.
Simply put, Twitter is killing my blog.
How could I go from positing 5-6 times a week about anything and everything, to barely getting 5 posts off in a month? Its not the fact that I am back home again, because my 2nd blog took off right where the Orlando one left off and boasted just as many posts as its predecessor. Honestly the downfall of my blogging fervor is that little blue birdy that everyone is talking about: Twitter.
The ability to shoot of a rapid posting from my phone at any point, is much more appealing than sitting down at the keyboard and hammering something out at the end of an evening. Twitter is so much faster, better streamlined and much simpler than a fully fledged blog. It’s Facebook and Blogspot’s illegitimate lovechild. All the benefits of both, with none of the drawbacks. Social networking has never been easier and neither has blogging. I still like posting more than 140 characters once in a while, particularly movie reviews. But Twitter has undeniably put a dent in my (and many others) blogging by appealing to short attention spans, hunger for updates and the need for social networking.
Last week I received a notice in the mail that I will be sitting my exam for American citizenship early February. I am really excited that the process has taken much less time in Virginia than forecast down in Florida. I dug out my civics question CD and have been listening to the questions and answers I’ll need to know for the exam. I’ll also be required to prove that I have reading and writing abilities in English, which should be relatively easy despite the quality of my blog postings. Now if you’ll excuse me I need to figure out the difference between Mark and John Warner.
What is this? And who am I? Not that either of those questions where on your mind, but here are the answers anyway: This is a blog, and I am Jamie. Two years back I moved to Orlando (proof) and now I am back here in northern Virginia slash DC metropolitan area. During my absence I got up to a fair bit and found blogging to be a great way to keep people who missed me in the know. Now that I’m back I plan on continuing the tradition for those I left behind in Florida, as well as the fact that I seem to really enjoy the habit of posting about my daily goings-on. There is no real rhyme nor reason as to what merits a post, but I’m pretty consistent at keeping my life on display in small (poorly spelled) entries. You’ll probably see I like to review a lot of things, particularly movies and pass judgment when I really have no authority to do so. Don’t let it bother you, and if it does, chime in and comment on my ramblings. I’m always open to suggestions and love to hear from people either they like the blog or not. So that’s that really. I’ve been back almost two weeks now and have a fair bit to catch up on so best get to it. Thanks for stopping to see what’s here. I hope you’ll do so again in the future.
Sincerely,
-Jamie
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