On Blogging

How things come together, and don't. On April 19th, yes, of 2010, I read Cristina Cordova's provoke in the SecretsoftheCity.com column, MNSpeak, where she attempts to solicit e-conversation in the blog format. She themes her provocation with the title, "Remember When We Used to Blog?" It did, indeed provoke me, at least prompt me, to again attempt a return to my own blog, for one of her remarks, "while most of us continue to reduce our thoughts to 140-character snippits", hit exactly at a consideration I've been mulling for some time. And, I suspect, given the state of subscription rates prevalent in print media discussions, I can take little credit for novelty of thought. I can though, air my thoughts on the matter, because I can.

A few days later, on a subsequent topic having to do with justice for wait staff, several commenters took to task a waitress who had had written a fine article on the ins and outs of waiting table. Their complaint: her write was too long (probably 5-700 words) on an e-site.

It just so happens that I had recently read Sven Birkerts' plea to step away from the screen in his "Reading in the Digital Age" in the Spring 2010 issue of The American Scholar. This essay is essentially a follow-on to his 1994, "The Gutenberg Elegies", a compendium of essays on reading. While Birkerts is indeed a writer by profession, he is a reader by passion. His current essay is timely to the subjects of both reading and writing in the digital age, as his book of essay was prescient.

Just after reading Ms Cordova's inducement I happened to read a rather long article in the 4.19.10 issue of the New Yorker by Jill Lepore, Critic at Large, "Untimely", six pages long (I've thought, but haven't pursued the question of how to determine -or find out- the word count of various articles. Just a curious interest. I have considered and rejected the possibility of a manual count. Not that interested I guess). The gist of the article had told the story of the contest between Harold Ross and Henry Luce in their development, respectively, of The New Yorker and Time magazines.

An interesting story in itself, more telling for me was how, juxtaposed to the online article promoting blogging, the piece by the waitress, and Birkerts' essay, "Untimely" directly addressed our modern concerns for the state of the media and the reading public. Already in the early 1920s at the inception of these two now prominent magazines, their progenitors were focused on production for reading types: "straphangers" for Luce, and the assumption of "a reasonable degree of enlightenment on the part of its readers" for Ross.

For Luce the style would be "simplification by organization, simplification by condensation, and simplification by just being damn well simple". Time would be for "a mind trained or untrained can grasp it with minimum effort." The New Yorker on the other hand " would not save anyone time; it would not spare anyone any effort." Time was about news, The New Yorker was to be about happenings. And ninety years later the two publications remain true to their founding styles.

Yet times have changed significantly; changed by virtue of not only population growth, but as much so by technology. Unemployment of the recent recession notwithstanding, the "straphangers" still exist but in larger numbers, augmented by single-occupant autos, and more and more cyclists. In many cases there are more single parents, and in any case, employees just-enough-to-get-the-job-done exhaust themselves in the quickening pace of today's production. End of the workplace day brings either beer:30 or the beginning of home chores, and transport of children. The children present extracurricular and sporting activities crucial to their development; crucial to their future college applications. Reading time? Writing-blogging time?

Not only has technology changed and quickened the workplace, it has brought us a multitude of past-time interest possibilities. All competition with reading and writing for time and energy. Technology has improved -and reduced the building costs of- sporting equipment and facilities thus providing ever greater opportunity for the distraction (time and energy demanding) of recreational sports, supported by advocates of good health and their advertising promotions. Indeed, technology has even brought us better and less expensive gardening and home-repair tools (not that you cannot spend a lot of money on them), as well as products to put in the ground or on the house. Technology has provided us higher quality television viewing and radio listening. Passive, perhaps, but engaging and consuming, at least of time. Less and less is there time for mulling on the issues of the day, much less, the writing of them.

Enter the reduction of thought to the 140-character snippet. I am an enthusiast for written communication. In part, that's why I'm enthralled with so many of the Google products. They make it almost fun and rather easy. We are even given opportunity for communication beyond our immediate circle of friends and relatives. But a 140-character snippet!? What, beyond an impulse can one communicate in 140 characters? Not much that you might want to see in public. Still, if the impulse is expressed, a compulsion eased, an irritation assuaged, the masses appeased, then, perhaps, all is right with the world.

And yet, there may be hope. The Boomers are coming. If the previous generation was "The Greatest" for their character of courage and fortitude, The Boomers, prior to their children, have to be the best educated yet. And they may yet prove the worth of the saying,"they can't take that away". They may have spent a life time earning and consuming, but many of them come with skills of reading and writing, and stories to tell. With several years now of retirement experience and reasonably good health, I can attest for the time to read. I can attest, too, for the inclination to reflect in writing. Of course not all will share those interests, but we are talking millions. And snippets won't satisfy.

Reading begets reading. The Internet, and cloud-based applications provide resource for both reading and writing. Some will want just news headlines and synopsis, others will succumb to longer pieces, stories and happenings. And many will write in reflection; and be read by their children and grandchildren. Paper in typewriters will be eschewed; blogging will boom, and 140-character snippets will cue the coffee klatch.