Twitter trumps blogging in public discussions

As the number of posts in this blog approaches 900, I again question the rationale for writing thoughts that no one reads. The figures don't lie. Daily page views are usually in the single digits, occasionally in the double digits, never rising into hundreds or thousands.

When I took up this blog, it was solace for having been unhinged from my creative outlet as a newspaper columnist. I had written columns at least once a week for most of my 33 years in the newspaper business. Some were thoughtful, even perceptive or challenging. Other columns just filled a space on the editorial or op-ed page. A blog, which I had actually taken up as a newspaper project, gave me an outlet, a continuity with what I had done for decades.

At the time, blogs were a sort of "next new thing." Newspapers were posting blogs by editors and reporters. Websites aggregated good blogs. A few people actually made money by blogging. I had some thoughts that my blog might get noticed, might even be picked up or republished on a wider stage. But while I received some positive comments and my list of "followers" grew, the blog never went anywhere, and neither did I.

When my unemployment ended, my blogging slowed to a crawl. No more daily posts. I was doing well to write weekly.

Another thing happened to slide my blog (and most others) into oblivion: Twitter. Instead of a thoughtful, insightful 300 or 600 words, the new "micro-blogging" site condensed every thought down to 140 characters. Twitter is a challenging exercise in brevity, but it is also indicative of the shallowness of public discussion. And Twitter has taken off. You can't read a news article or watch a news show on TV without hearing about someone's tweet about some topic. A Twitter account is mandatory for everyone in political office as well as for public officials.

This is the new way of communicating: 140 characters or less. A small bite of a thought, not examined or explored but merely announced for all the world to see, which is why tweets often have to be withdrawn or apologized for.

But Twitter has crippled blogging. Why take the time to read a long blog post when you can digest 140 characters in less time than it takes to type in a password?

The demise of blogging is not a tragedy, but the demise of serious discussion about civic issues — if that is what we're coming to — is.

When bloggers stop blogging or take a recess

My Blogger home page, from which I write this blog, includes a list of blogs I'm following. Nearly all of them are by people I know or have known, and the latest posts from each of these blogs pops up on the page so I can keep current on them.

Last night, out of curiosity, I clicked on the blog names to see whether I had missed anything. I found that the bloggers I've been following have become a quiet bunch. The latest posts were dated "8 months ago," "two months ago," "two years ago," "three years ago," etc. No wonder I've been reading fewer blogs lately.

I look at this two ways: (1) I've persevered and outlasted most of the bloggers I've known. I'm up to 823 posts, according to my Blogger home page, and I have 65 followers (although, admittedly, at least two of my followers have died — probably not as a result of reading my blog). I began writing a blog when I was a newspaper editor, and blogs were all the rage in the newspaper business. I never really thought I'd take the blogging world by storm, but I had hoped to generate some discussion and provoke some thoughts, either in agreement or in dissent. Alas, I've never made money off of blogging and have frequently wondered why I'm still doing it, nearly five years after leaving the newspaper business. I do it because it's a form of writing, and I enjoy writing, even if I know no one is reading it, except perhaps for 65 people (minus two or more).

My second look at this (#2) is that blogging has become passe. Now it's not blogging that is cutting edge. It's Twitter or Instagram or some other condensed brevity that I might not even be aware of. I see tweets quoted in news articles more often than I see blogs quoted. So while a few people are making some money off of their blogs, the public's attention seems to be directed more toward the 144 characters of a tweet. Celebrities do it. Politicians do it. "Even educated fleas do it ... Let's do a tweet!"

Bloggers: An endangered species?

Old media mention boosts new media

I was at the end of a radio interview touting the Fike High School blood drive when David Perkins, also known as "D.P. in the Morning," asked me about my former career and how I was managing the transition from offering my unsolicited opinion about most everything to being a mild-mannered manager of a nonprofit. What do you do with all those opinions, he asked.

Although I was not expecting this opening, I saw the gap and ran to daylight. Immediately after leaving newspaper employment, I told him, I started my own blog as an outlet for all those pent-up opinions. He asked for the address for this blog you're reading, and I gave it to him. He repeated it on the air a couple of times, and I joked that if I saw a sudden spike in page views, I would know that this oldest of the broadcast media still had power.

That evening, I checked my statistics on StatCounter and was amazed to see an obvious spike in unique visitors and page views. Compared to the previous Wednesday, my unique visitors and page views tripled. We're still talking about dozens of page views, not hundreds or thousands, but, still, saying "xeditor.blogspot.com" on a local FM station had an immediate and dramatic impact on the number of people who were seeing — and presumably reading — this blog.

Since beginning this blog with no illusions of becoming a "professional blogger" (I still doubt that anyone can actually make a living at this), I have struggled to increase readership and keep the writing interesting. The secret, as I told bloggers when I was still working for an "old media" company, is to be consistent: Blog every day; always give readers something new to read when they open your page. I did that pretty consistently when I was unemployed and built unique visitors to numbers approaching 100 a day. But when I got a job, my blogging hobby faltered, and I saw my statistics falter as well. My advice — blog every day — was good, and I should have listened.

Daily regularity is essential to blogs

I once told a newspaper conference, where I was a panelist, that the most important part of blogging was being consistent. I recommended blogging daily on whatever topic so that readers would have fresh posts to read whenever they returned to the site.

I tried to follow that rule when I was blogging for a newspaper, and I followed it pretty consistently while unemployed. The posts might not have been profound or noteworthy, but they were delivered fresh daily. Since rejoining the ranks of the productively employed, however, I've slacked off on blogging. Getting to the office on time has taken precedence over researching a topic for a blog post.

The hit counter I checked today confirmed my suspicions. Visits to this blog slowed down in October, when I returned to work full-time. The drop-off was not precipitous, but it was dramatic enough to be easily noticed.

Although losing a few readers of this blog is disappointing, it does appear to prove my earlier point: The most important element of successful blogging is daily consistency. I should take my own advice.

This blog has served its purpose

I began this blog Oct. 7, 2008, a few days after being unceremoniously laid off by the newspaper for which I had worked for 29 years. There was little comfort in knowing I was not the only one being shown the door, nor was there any comfort later when more former colleagues were also dismissed. As the "about me" section says, I started this blog to fill my need to write and to express opinions. Although I'm still waiting to be recognized as a "blog of note" by Blogger or to reach triple digits of "followers," I have filled my need to write. Posting to this blog has shaped the start of my day as I checked headlines, thought about life and pondered what it means to be an unemployment statistic. I have attracted a few readers. The (invisible) counter I use says about 2,000 unique visitors per month look at this blog. That's not an impressive statistic, but it's something.

One of the important aspects of blogging is simply showing up. You need to blog daily, or more often, to give your audience a reason to keep coming back. With more than 350 posts in just over a year, I've been here almost every day, and I've enjoyed it. As I told students when I was teaching English many years ago, writing helps you to think. Organizing your thoughts and putting them down on paper (or the computer screen) forces you to think about your assertions and defend them. That process, day after day, has been an outlet and a learning process for me.

I'm happy to report that my 382 days of joblessness end Monday. I begin a new job, a new career, a new schedule, a new focus, a new commitment and new responsibilities. Although I have no intention of abandoning this blog, it will have to take a lower priority. I might not be posting early each morning. I might not be posting every day. If that weakens its impact and reduces its audience, it can't be helped.

I started this blog to help me keep in the practice of writing every day while I searched for a new job. Having found a job, I have less need for this blog. Several people have told me they read this blog regularly. I hope they will continue to do so — and to understand if my posts are less frequent. I've enjoyed blogging and plan to continue doing it as much as I can.

Gratuitous insult ruins a good comment

My post Friday about economic recovery, unemployment and the minimum wage generated a lot of comments, for which I'm grateful. It actually generated one more comment that was rejected, regrettably.

Several commenters tossed around pros and cons of the minimum wage. The rejected comment added to the discussion the fact that an additional 70 cents an hour or $28 for a 40-hour week is not the entire cost to employers. Payroll taxes (Social Security and Medicare) costs employers another 7.65 percent of wages, and government also demands more in unemployment insurance, etc. Valid points, but to those valid points this anonymous reader added an insulting remark about the alleged ignorance of a previous commenter, who was not anonymous.

Because Blogger software does not allow me to edit out offensive portions of a comment, I had two choices: I could allow an anonymous reader to insult another reader who had the integrity to use his own name, or I could reject the comment. I chose the latter.

This episode has given me cause to think again about requiring registration to comment on this blog. That might discourage some commenters, which I don't want to do, but it might be the best alternative. It is a guiding principle of journalism that anonymous personal attacks should not be allowed. I think it's a good idea for blogging, too.