The Big Blogging Morph

I've been blogging for four years now. 

(Interesting side note:  This post marks my 912th post.  Wow.  That sounds more prolific than I feel.)

Now to sound like the granny I am:  Back in the day when blogging was young, people blogged to meet like-minded people (or unlike-minded people that you would come to love through their writing).  People blogged to voice political opinions or parenting tips.  People blogged to show projects they'd been developing or ask for help with a difficult child.  People blogged to document their family's lives--kids' activities, birthdays, weddings, births.

Bloggers hosted giveaways and participated in link-up parties in attempts to garner more followers on their sidebar.

Bottom line:  Blogging used to be about remembering and connecting.

Fast forward to today, and blogging has changed. 

In order to successfully blog, you need to Facebook and Twitter..  You need to understand RSS feeds and Instagram.  Your projects should be ready for a magazine shoot, not just some shlumpy thing you threw together. You should be a professional photographer, because if you're not, how will anyone ever pin your photos?  And you should never share problems or questions or . . . .heaven forbid . . . a messy house.*

Now bloggers have advertisers and sponsors who require a certain level of traffic from your blog in order to pay you for the privilege of showing up on your home screen.

I will admit to getting caught up in the whole popularity game of blogging on more than several occasions over the last four years.  I've counted comments and wondered why one post struck the comment gold mine while another received no comment love.  I've hosted link parties and giveaways and pandered to bloggers whose writing I found insipid, hoping to find some self-satisfaction in their validation of my writing. 

Slowly over the last year, and especially obvious over this past summer, bloggers have been evaporating quicker than General Petraeus's reputation.  Unique to cyberspace is the ability to be best buddies one day, and the next day to never return to the internet.  A quick comment on an old blog post to check on a friend vanishes as quickly as it takes to hit publish.

I will also state the fact that Facebook seems to be one of the most destructive inventions to the existence of the casual blogger.  Many of the bloggers I've connected with over the years and now consider friends have become casualties to the quick convenience of a Facebook post.  A Facebook post takes much less brain power and time than a thoughtful and thought-provoking blog post.  These former bloggers have found places either in the Facebook world or on Twitter or Instagram, neglecting their previously loved blogging corner of cyberspace.

I've taken some time over the last few months to review older posts for kids' birthdays or just to reread memories I recorded, and I can see how my blogging has changed.  Recently I have I rarely taken time to record deep thoughts or ask probing questions.  I haven't taken time to post funny quick moments of our lives--like my deep abiding love of my Spotbot or a silly series of photos just for fun.  I spend countless hours editing and enhancing photos, sometimes rejecting a post idea just because I don't have a good enough picture to accompany the story. 

I've also made a conscious decision not to court sponsors or sport ads on my blog. For some (if not most bloggers), ads make the time and effort of blogging worth it. To me, it defeats the purpose of my blog refuge.  It's for me and my family and my readers, not a place to make money. Commercializing my blog would create unnecessary pressure to produce a product, not just the joy I find in writing for me.

Maybe you're thinking that I've missed the boat--that my antiquated views of blogging will leave me behind.  That my simplistic ideas will get me nowhere--and nowhere fast.  And I acknowledge that you'd be right about those things.

I still love comments and page views and traffic and followers and acknowledgement of my ideas, but as I've taken the time to review a few blog posts, I've realized a few things I had missed in all the popularity game fog. 

First of all, my writing has gotten much better.  Even though my deep posts are fewer and farther between, I can see how I've progressed in this craft.  That's no small achievement, especially coming from a former proofreader/editor who never dreamed of actually composing the prose.

Second, my photography has improved as well.  I've gone from point-and-shoot to aperture and shutter speed and Lightroom.  Even though the photography side of my blogging is taking more time, the end products are much better--still has a long way to go, but definitely better.

And most important of all (didn't Grandma Olsen always say, "Last the best of all the game"?), I have recorded family memories and personal thoughts that I never would have penned had I not felt some obligation to post here--Heidi leaving for college, Angelo returning to his family, Tucker's mission call, Ben's football successes, Lily's diving triumphs, Micah's concussion, Hyrum's magic cotton candy, Evie's first haircut. I will be forever indebted to blogging for the memories it has preserved--for me and for my children.

For these three reasons, I just can't see myself quitting, as much as I've thought about it over the past few months.  Blogging may have transformed into the gateway to financial independence and Pinterest fame, but my kids will never care how many pins I generated or how many followers I had. 

The blogging world may be morphing, but for me it will always be what I need it to be:  a place to remember the good, the bad, the messy, the ugly, the fantastic, the great.

A place for the inmates of the Sanatorium to thrive.

I'm still hanging in there.

Are you with me?

*I must admit that I do read Facebook and even occasionally post on it.  I have an Instagram account, a twitter address (that I've never used), and I am an admitted Pinterest addict.  I will sometimes post one of my own photos to Pinterest as well.

And to those of you who are blogging as a second source (or primary source) of income, I think that's fabulous for you.  No insult intended.  And I still read your blogs.  See?  No hard feelings.