Well, I came back for a second week in a row. A little late this week, but I'm trying to make myself go through this exercise. I was pondering what to write about, my LAST POST didn't get much traction. I was actually expected some backlash, but no such luck. Then again, I've been away for a while, and well, so have many of the bloggers I follow. It made me wonder, where have all the good bloggers gone?
I first started blogging in 2007 on "The Sporting News." It was a great community of bloggers with great back and forth. Many of the bloggers were better writers than Sporting News staff. The website noticed our community and sneakily started to boost stuff from the blogging community. Shortly before they killed off the blogging community, some guys started their own site and invited some of us to join. I eventually bought into it and helped run it, as well as posting every day. Other groups started their own sites, and rivalries that began at "The Sporting News," continued at these different sites. I miss the blogging wars. All those places are gone now.
They aren't the only ones. When I started this blogspot page I found a world of other blogs and bloggers. There were people posting poetry, creative writing, introspective pieces, politics, pop culture, photography blogs, people who used it like a journal. There was "A Frank Angle" and "The Daddy Files" which were never miss reads. There was something for everyone and there were things you didn't even know you would be interested in. They seem to have faded away.
Our attention spans have gone to shit. The written word is dying. No one wants to read 8 paragraphs on my perfect Heisman trophy prediction, or Aaron's trials and tribulations of being a father of 3 uniquely different kids and trying to balance work and family obligations, or a nuanced argument on the days latest horrifying events. Everything got broken down to a quick tweet, or an Instagram pic with a couple hashtags written below it, or stupid short videos on TikTok or Instagram. The world has bought into "less is more." It's not.
Some may say, I'm being over dramatic saying the written word is dying. Let me prove you wrong....English class is not called English class anymore. It's called "ELA." Phonics is not taught isn't schools anymore, neither is cursive. I have two high schoolers who work for me, both are in "Honors ELA." They both can barely write anything legible. They can't read or write cursive. They have horrible grammar and struggle to properly pronounce everyday words, and the admittedly don't read, nor are they assigned reading. I wasn't in honors English in high school, and I was required to read a book every week the first three years of school and was tested on them. These kids have no idea who Jack London is.
On top of that, we have communities, cities, school boards, lunatic governors, banning books throughout this country, and there is little push-back against it. There is little coverage from the media, and less coverage of the small push-back. Does the media/journalists not realize that they'll be next to be censored or banned. We are dumbing down our kids...We are dumbing down ourselves.
I'm going to keep writing, even if no one is reading...And I'm going to start searching again for whatever quirky blogs are out there, sharing their own little slice of madness.
Have a week.
