Hello? Is this thing on? Anyone?
That’s how it feels at the moment with my blogging. Or non-blogging. I can’t believe I have not written here since July! That’s 5 months, and the longest time I have gone without writing here since I started this blog just over 10 years ago. But August – my 10 year ‘blogaversary’ – came and went and I still just didn’t seem to get around to it. Not sure why. Partly being busy with my work with EdTechTeam. Partly being busy with other stuff. And partly, I think maybe just a little bit of a need to disconnect from this online space, and reconnect with the real world a little more.
I have good intentions of writing again. I enjoy writing, and as I’ve said on many occasions, writing is my way of thinking out loud, of throwing ideas around in my own head in a public space so I can be kept accountable for them. But lately I just haven’t felt motivated to do that.
I think it’s partly the impact of social media. It’s now so easy to just throw an idea out there, usually in a few sentences (or 140 characters), so that it feels pointless taking the time to express it here in a longer form. It may be partly because I read other blogs that are full of ideas that seem so timely, so eloquent, so contemporary, that even when I’m thinking along the the same lines it feels kind of redundant and derivative to bother expressing it.
But I need to remind myself that I still have my own voice, and I can still make contributions to this ongoing global conversation in my own way. I forget that sometimes.
So I just wanted to assure you that I’m still here. Still alive. Still with a head full of ideas, thoughts and questions. And I plan to start writing here again. Honest. There, I said it. Now it has to happen. Bring on 2017.
Oh, and a belated 10th birthday to Betchablog and to the many readers like yourself that have made the last 10 years such an amazing experience in learning together. I appreciate you all.
Header image: Microphone by Alex Indigo
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Is This Thing On? by Chris Betcher is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Great to hear your Betchablog continues…I appreciate how you can tackle complex issues and distil them down into the essential facts and incisive opinions
Hey Chris – Glad to hear you are going to get back at it! I am struggling with my blogging as well. Looking to get back in the groove! Best of luck to you. We’ll be here…
I feel like Alcoholics Anonymous.
Hello my name is Allanah and I am a blogger. I have not blogged since August 2015.
I have stuff going on but I also have a list of a dozen things that I would like to write about but, like you, I have felt the need to step away a bit and not spend great chunks of my life in front of the screen.
Glad you are back Chris!
Happy Blogaversary, Honey – so great to see you at it again. Have always enjoyed your blogger voice. Can’t wait to see what you create over the next 10 years.
The fact that you’ve gone public with your intentions is a sign of your commitment. Best of luck! And even here your insight (social media eclipsing your long form writing) offered a lovely moment of “aha!”. Looking forward to 2017.
I feel your non blogging pain. A pain which I have had a few times before however… I will be following your lead on this one Chris, so best of luck with it! 😛