I just read a book by Glenn Reynolds, “The Social Media Upheaveal”. He says that we are deep reading less, and learning from headlines more. He also says that many of us share on social media articles that we have not read, more so share by the head line.
I think it’s important to write down our thoughts, so that we know where we stand on the issues of our time. My late father used to say that you have to know where you stand, so you don’t fall for anything. So it seems, today, the best way to be more educated than the masses is to read more than the headline. Then write down our own thoughts.
Writing also helps those who come after us to see the person we were. It doesn’t matter if it is a journal, a newsletter, a blog, or a spiral notebook. Sometimes it can speak to people here today, as well, to share in the discourse, because we are all at different levels in life, and sharing helps each other through it.
The thing about writing and reading blogs, is that you can connect the dots between thoughts and ideas. Although my newsletter is my favorite creative outlet for sharing, my blog is where I share thoughts that link it with the thoughts of others. A practice that is uncommon today. So, if a comment to a blog post might be too long, with blogs we can link to it with a post in response.
I like to follow people who are successful doing the uncommon thing. Like it is said to be successful you have to have your own website or blog, with a custom domain name, and I have found this to be untrue. I also have seen several bloggers over the years who have moved back and forthe from having their own platform, to blogging on a community provider, just like I’m doing here with Vivaldi. The big guy, Reynolds, known as “The Blogfather” is doing just that here for example.
Some people say that podcasts are the new blog. But I say that more people are moving away from social media and migrating (back) to the open web with some sort of blogging. Just like it has been said that email is dead, but I would bet more people read email than social media … becuase to have a social media account you usually need an email address.
All of this to say that my transition to Vivaldi is the place where I develop my thoughts and ideas with pictures and words. I hope you find what I have to say meaningful, as I’m proud to do it!
Thanks for reading.
Well, all kinds of electronic blogging etc will not stay because companies come and go and so do platforms.
Additionally standards change.
If that happens, the only knowledge and thoughts that will stay is written in books, or other things that you can directly write upon, which can survive without permanent consumption of electrical energy.
For information to prevail over centuries it is important that you can read with a functional set of optic sensors MK1, aka your eyes only.
Welcome and thanks for choosing Vivaldi’s community to share your interesting thoughts!
Looking forward to reading more of your posts. 😊
Thank you for your nice comment, Gaëlle, and for stopping by. I’m still ‘moving in’ and liking the community as well.
Hi!
Thanks for writing this. I’ve been wanting to (re)start blogging for some time. Your insight encourages me and I might just give Vivaldi a chance. Curiously enough, I’ve also been writing more on paper in a normal notebook; mostly to prepare for an upcoming exam but also to sort out my thoughts in general.
I agree with what you say. What’s important about blogging is to share our thoughts and knowledge, and the ideas and knowledge of others (in an open web, for free).
Maybe social media has just distracted us from doing that kind of writing and most of us will get back to it soon. I hope so.
As Gaëlle, I look forward to reading more of your posts. In fact I have a few of them in my reading list already. 🙂
I have both my own privately hosted web site/blog (https://www.my64.in.nf) and my blog, here on Vivaldi. Although I have much more control over what I can do with my private blog and I’ve been told that it contains a lot of useful information for the target audience, the problem with a private blog is reaching your audience.
Using a service like Vivaldi, I give up control of my content to gain the advantage of having access to a larger audience, due to other bloggers like yourself, stumbling across my postings.