Thursday, May 13, 2010

The bloggerator

You might naively think that the bloggerator is the person who blogs. Not so. I think of the bloggerator as more of an engine, a process in which the blogger is a part but not the whole thing. The bloggerator process involves not only the blogger and the blogging process and the content that goes into the blog, but also the people who read the blog, follow it and offer comments. It is not enough for the blogger to have ideas that he/she feels compelled to broadcast. Ultimately, given that the blogger is a social being, he/she also needs to feel that someone is interested in his/her ideas. As Kurt Vonnegut once observed, every author needs an audience, even if it is only an audience of one, as in the case of the person who writes a letter, or nowadays an email or a tweet.
And now, on to a metaphor. The bloggerator is in some ways like an engine. Keep it running regularly and startup is easy. Let it sit for a while and getting it going again is a chore. The oil seems to drain out of the engine, turning it over is difficult, etc. You get the idea. So anyway, I have let this engine sit a while and now attempts to run it are being met with resistance. Nevertheless here we go again.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My computer crashed and I lost my book marks. I remembered your site and am glad I did. I don't have a whole lot to offer other than encouragement. Keep writing, so I can keep reading! Thanks.


Ted