Okay, it’s not specifically Quaker – it’s not actually at all Quaker – but I like the thinking behind Why You Should Start a Blog in 2019 by Ernie Smith in Tedium. Long-time readers will know I usually have at least a post a year in which I blog about blogging. This time I’ll let Ernie talk about the rationales and needs for a blogging culture:
We could use a little momentum. A decade ago, as I was getting started with this, platforms like Facebook took advantage of our desire for a simpler option and used it to silo up our data, lock and key. We lost an exciting blogosphere in the midst of all of this — and the first step towards getting it back is by realizing that ownership should be a first class citizen, whether or not we eventually give away those words, sell them, or keep them close to our chest. A blog that you own, that you pay the hosting bill for? That’s the first step — a form of expression that should be the future (because after all, how awesome is it that anyone can own a printing press?!?) but somehow became the past.
I haven’t been updating this Quaker Daily Read as much as I’d like over the last month or so. That’s partly the result of an early December vacation and then the chaos of late December holidays with the family. I’m sure I’ve missed some great posts that I should have shared but there’s also days when I run through my RSS collection (I use Feedly to follow about a hundred or so blogs) and find nothing particularly fresh or interesting. I’d love to see more of us trading the Facebook dopamine-rush immediacy for some more thoughtful writing and conversation.
https://tedium.co/2019/01/01/2019-independent-blogging-trends/