The kids and I attended a stream monitoring workshop put on by the City of Raleigh on Saturday. It was great learning how to measure the water quality of our city’s streams and we look forward to doing our part.
The workshop included field time and the group practiced in nearby Little Rock Creek. As I was wading around in the middle of the creek, a fellow participant wandered over to me.
“Are you the blogger?” he said.
“Excuse me? Am I the what?”
“The blogger, www.markturner.net?” he answered.
I laughed and introduced myself to my new friend, Sandro Gilser, blogger at The Daddy Weekly. You should check it out.
It always knocks me off my feet when people I just met already know me from my blog. I suppose that’s the point, though. I blog to share who I am, to help write the story of myself and the world I live in. I have very little grasp on who else reads. Or why, for that matter.
My friend Chris O’Donnell (another good friend who met me online before meeting me in person) posted about the importance of blogging rather than (or in addition to) other social media. The link he shared linked to other stories, which linked to other stories, which linked to other stories, all of which bemoan the lost art of blogging. Much of this writing has become sliced up status updates on services like Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, and others.
I use those walled gardens, too, don’t get me wrong. They have their place. But those places aren’t my place. They don’t have my name at the top of the page, and they also don’t always let me express myself exactly in the way I want. I get all of that here on MT.Net.
It’s been ten and a half years, 5,664 posts, and I’ve yet to have a quibble with this place’s terms of service.
This is awesome. I’ve felt the same way.
The stories shared or hyped up on social media can quickly create buzz but then quickly fade out. If there were more blogging, more personal ownership, those stories or events would be remain on for years. So instead of practically disappearing when over, they remain on and are writing history.