In terms of blog neglect, 2018 appears to have been a banner year. Despite well over 20 article false starts, I published exactly one blog post in the entire calendar year. (Well, two, with this one.)
This is not limited to my blog, though. I have grown quieter on all networks I still participate in. My conversations are increasingly in private messages, in group chats, or in a draft tweet that quickly gets deleted.
Why? Two reasons, I think.
One: we – royal internet We, to the extent that there is one overarching culture – have mutated to a point where I’m not entirely sure I fit in to that culture. Worse, I’m not sure I want to.
Two: the social networks are part of the problem, and the people running them have signaled pretty clearly this year they have no desire to fix them.
My natural response to both of these has been to clam up, to shut down, to say less. This is hard for someone who’s proudly waved an online presence for nearly three decades.
So may I wave this dusty, underutilized presence that’s mine once more. May I turn the comments off and the frequency up. May I micro-blog less and macro-blog more.
May I find my voice once more in 2019.