The Changing Bloggy World

I was blog browsing tonight and discovered more blogs by people that I know in real life. It is amazing to me how blogging as a hobby has suddenly surged in popularity. And the blogs are different than when I first started. Everyone seems to post their full names now. They are family blogs, with full disclosure of where they live and what they are up to.

I remember when I discovered the fun of blogging over 2 years ago and mentioned it to a couple of in real life friends. They looked like I was speaking a foreign language, so I stopped mentioning it. My readers and the blogs I read were all either family or friends I had met through their blogs. And name and city mentioning? No way. Too dangerous putting private information like that on the internet. Nobody did that! I guess blogs are now so common, that its no different than having your name in the phone book. And do people make friends through blogs now? When you know no one who blogs, you naturally reach out to those who do, even if they are strangers. Now that there are so many blogs, perhaps that need no longer exists.

My blogging has changed, too. I don't post as frequently, nor do I feel the need to post memes or fillers. I care much less about writing for a specific audience and just write about what I am excited about or thinking about. Maybe, because my potential audience was far more varied than I had expected. Maybe because I worry less about what other people think about me and my blog. I wanted my blog to be special in the eyes of my readers, and now I just want it to be special to me. I've even had a couple of bloggy awards that I haven't posted yet, not that I don't appreciate the nominations (thanks guys!), but I just don't worry about that stuff anymore.

I don't visit blogs as much, either. I have been a bad bloggy friend! My time seems to be full of other things now. For good or bad. I keep a monthly to do list on my computer, just in a basic word document. As I worked on planning November, I went back and read my to do list from Nov 2006. I was amazed at how much more I was expecting to get done now than I did then. Maybe I expected a lot more back then than actually happened. Maybe life is just getting busier with another child, and kids that are getting older and having more intense activities and homework.

But, change is good. It shows we are growing, progressing. Just hopefully in the right direction! It will be interesting to see how both my blogging, and blogging in general progress in the next couple years. Which will fly by much faster than I am ready for!

(And in case you were wondering, I'm not going to full disclosure on my blog. Call me paranoid, but I feel like I have pretty valid reasoning not to.)