June 12, 2013

• The End of Blogging (as we know it)

  

  It's the end of the world as we know it.
  It's the end of the world as we know it.
  It's the end of the world as we know it and I feel fine... fine...

  (It's time I had some time alone,
  It's time I had some time alone,
  It's time I had some time alone
  I feel fine...)

  by R.E.M. 1987 © Warner/Chappell Music, Inc. Image of me as Samson toppling my personal website first appeared in a Xanga blog entry in 2004.

   

  It depresses me to go to the Xanga front page and see posts like: 

  I no longer see the point of blogging...

  Over the past couple of years, "top blogs" contained a lot of "comment wars" about some "issue du jour." Now that Xanga may join the ranks of the "dead websites", the contents are divided between "let's all get together and save the site" posts and "have we been wasting our time here over the past 14 years?" posts.

  The writer isn't one of my long time correspondents. I don't think they subscribe to my sporadic postings, but I recognized the writer's username from dozens of "top blog entries" during the last couple of times I've emerged from my many hiatuses. That a "popular blogger" is writing "is it really going to matter what you post on the internet..." , "what's the point", and "does anybody give a shit" (quoted from the entry) bothers me a lot. My heart goes out to this blogger, and the hundreds, perhaps thousands more, who, over the years, have gained a sort of "instant noteriety" or "fame" because of their connections and social networking acumen. One of the bloggers here on Xanga who does subscribe to my own blog wrote an entry decrying that they had no friends. Sort of like they were musing that if Xanga were to suddenly disappear, they would be totally alone.

  Let me tell ya. I'm 60 years old. I'm totally alone. Parents died when I was in college. Estranged siblings. Three whole groups of friends dead, gone, or otherwise missing from my personal life. I'm sort of tired of "making new friends" only to see them disappear eventually, but hey, WE ALL DISAPPEAR eventually, and then we open the door to the Great Universal Consciousness, as I've written so many many times. At least I'm satisfied, even in lonliness, and with the prospect of yet ANOTHER social networking service disappearing (the internet didn't even EXIST for most of the life I've led!) that at one time or another, be it in a blog entry, one of my patented novel sized comments, or even in a thought or inspiration I got from any one of the thousands of blog entries I've read on Xanga (Or on the Yahoo groups, or message boards, Or on Facebook, or in a book or poem, or the Bible or whathaveyou) that my meager life has not been wasted, and even though I, the blogger in question, and EACH AND EVERY ONE OF US who takes breath into our bodies during our short lives on this planet, may feel depressed and sad at times during these lives, these "downer" times can only help to make the "good times" even better.

  I'm writing as a bipolar individual. I can experience higher highs and lower lows than most of the populace, so I know whereof I speak. Recently somebody else in my life passed away. I blogged about it. I wrote a poem expressing my thoughts, and emailed it to the family. (I won't supply a link. It's still on the front page of my Xanga blog.) When I attended the memorial service, I was overwhelmed with emotion when I was complimented on my poem. Even though I drove home alone, and felt a bit out of sorts at the time, the positivity I received from the experience gave me good tidings and even in grief, I felt that perhaps someone was consoled by something I wrote.

  Last year I condensed the entire 10 year blogging experience of one blogger I didn't know who died into a blog entry. titled "What is Xanga about."  I actually read this woman's complete blog. It took a long time, and it amazed me that I was given a peek into an existence I wouldn't otherwise have happened upon. It could have been a blogger or wordpress blog. It doesn't matter. Even when the pages we post on the internet disappear, sites like the Internet Archive let us look into the past, over all the words and all the old sites which have been screen captured for posterity. 

  PLEASE don't shut down your internet activity. PLEASE don't delete your Xanga blog because you've heard the site will disappear. I believe that the internet serves as a memorial for all of us. I may not be living in a decade. Heck, I could die tomorrow. Nothing is certain. That's the trauma and the beauty of this life we share for the moment we are able to connect. It's easy to archive all your posts. Takes me a couple of minutes and I've been doing it for nearly 10 years here. I've written millions of words on the internet, and perhaps some are overblown, and useless, and repetitive. It takes too long to read my blog entries. Yadda Yadda Yadda. But SOMETHING I've written matters to someone, and something you've written matters to someone. Perhaps it is only yourself, when you go over the comments you've received (which are archived along with your posts.) and see something somebody else you may NOT EVEN KNOW wrote in consolation, acceptance, or praise of YOU. 

  I just posted something else on the internet. I'm sure I'll get five comments as usual. (What, only five comments?) But I don't care. The experience of expressing myself is what matters to me. We are all family, as Sister Sledge once sang. Everything matters. And nothing matters. It's all the same thing, if you really think about it!

  Is this the real life?
  Is this just fantasy?
  Caught in a landslide
  No escape from reality

  ...Nothing really matters
  Anyone can see
  Nothing really matters - nothing really matters to me

  from Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, written by Freddie Mercury 1975

  

  Posted: June 12, 2013 6:44 AM

  • 6:32 pm
  • 31 Comments