Last Tuesday, I blogged about Aging with Grace. In that post, I blogged a little about blogging:
I've also
thought about cutting way down on blogging. Several bloggers I know have
either quit in the last year, or cut way back. I hope it is for good
reasons....
I've
blogged daily since May of 2011. In a way, my blog has become an
online journal. It's a fragile journal, one that could go "poof" at any
time if Google decides to discontinue the platform. But, for now, daily
blogging serves my purposes. It's a journal I can look at any time I
have an internet connection.
There were some interesting comments from fellow bloggers. I thank everyone who commented on that post. Here are two of the comments, edited for length:
From reader Liz at Laws of Gravity: "Lately I've begun to think of my grandfather with regards to blogging.
He had a CB radio...My
brother and I would sit with him when we were kids in the '80s. But
looking back, CB radios would have had their heyday in the '70s. I think
blogging is becoming that. It's still here, but people are falling away
from it as newer social media has come in and shortened our attention
spans (yet again)."
And Yogi, who heads the Friday sky watching meme I participate in at his blog Skywatch Friday, commented: "I posted daily on my blog for years. Now it is three or four times a
week. You see it with everybody else with the decreased number of people
participating in the various memes....And I think we have lost lots of bloggers. It seems to be
an older person's passion. Some people just go dark and I don't know
if they have passed away or just tired of it all."
They both make good points.
I wonder what I am going to find when it is time for an April blogging challenge I've participated in since 2015 to have its signup. Signup is starting on March 10 for the 2024 Blogging from A to Z Challenge (A to Z for short).
This
challenge started in 2010 and continues every April for the entire month. Bloggers who
sign up (and some who don't) start April 1 with a post whose title and
subject begins with
"A". This year, "A" day will be Monday, April 1. Tuesday is for "B", and so on, except for Sunday. We follow this pattern all the way to Z on the last blogging
day of April (a Tuesday). So,
26 blogging days, 26 letters of the English
alphabet. Some letters are easy. Some are hard (think Q and X.)
But each year, it seems fewer people participate and I get less eager to join up. Last year, especially, a number of blogs never even started (and didn't explain) or quit midmonth without even a "Thank you, and goodbye".
Some statistics:
2010 (the first year) nearly 100 participants.
2011 - nearly 1300.
2012 - nearly 1700
2023 - if my math is correct, 231.
A to Z turned out to be good for me last year when I contracted COVID, had a few days of feeling crappy and tired, and even a day when I would have been hard pressed to remember my own name, never mind read any blog. My blog posts, prewritten, posted on automatic pilot, so to speak.
Years ago, I was introduced to some great bloggers (like Liz of one of the above comments) and I think an A to Z Blogger led me to Skywatch Friday. An A to Z blogger also invited me to join the Monday Music Moves Me I participate in.
A fellow Music Moves Me person also co-hosts A to Z, and I respect this person highly. Actually, I respect all the co-hosts: this is a LOT of work. I don't want to waste their time.
I agonize each year about signing up, I know. And, truth to tell, I already have a theme in mind.
But...do I still have the ambition? Is it still right for me? Have I done it too long? Is the joy gone?
Will Blogging from A to Z be for me this year? Or will I take a Leap (this is a leap year, after all) of faith and seek something different?
It's the hour of decision.
