It’s interesting how some things get blogged and others don’t; how some people blog and others just don’t see the point. The not-blog concept explored… First, in the un-blogged universe, all those things in bloggers’ daily online/offline lives that are not blog-worthy (for me that’s things that get seen, done, read, visited that are not particularly interesting or thought-provoking); second, those things, places etc. that are too difficult to blog (no access, too dodgy, no camera); third, those ideas, concepts, and so on that are un-formed, messy and too difficult to express; fourth, those events, thoughts etc that are, in some way, seen as private. Well, of course, you could add to or change the list, but it seems to miss an over-arching blogger’s decision - an editorial decision - how much to blog.
My original intent as a blogger was to lean into Third Space, to find expression for ‘current pre-occupations’ which didn’t get voiced elsewhere (actually, I hoped at the point to remain anonymous, so it seemed more a matter of ‘getting it off my chest’ rather than being read by X or Y). But this meant surrendering to the form - keeping it fairly brief, coherent, readable and, yes, interesting - just in case someone important to me read it! Yet even then there was a boundary, a blog/not blog boundary.
An example: in the blogs I visit, there is little reference to the minutiae of everyday life. Where we go, what we do is usually only referenced in an oblique way. Here’s an enigmatic reference, a more explicit reference and an implied reference to places we went/ things we did in meatspace. Clearly, there’s so much silence, unblogged, not-blog stuff (and why not?). But it seems important to ask why some things ‘get in’ and others don’t. The concepts of audience and purpose could be helpful here. My intial intent (above) was quite purpose-driven - you could call this Third Space thinking/writing; but audience known/unknown has gradually become important too. Will I say something interesting, (clever!), entertain…will my readers like me…will they return?
There’s probably not enough space to even begin to open up the other dimension of not-blog, that is those, and there are plenty of them, who don’t blog or don’t see the point (or don’t know what a blog is). It might be worth some exploration, though. If we are to understand what it’s like to be a blogger, what this particular engagement with digital culture is like, feels like, and becomes then it must be set against the backcloth of not-blogging. What does it do that is different? What’s the attraction? What’s the point? (Or, alternatively, are they the wrong questions to be asking in the first place?)
