The Demise of a Blog

Blogs are great (sometimes). They are a way to communicate experiences, tastes, distastes, and general intellectual banter to an indeterminably large (or small) audience. I feel guilty that I’ve let mine wither and I am making a concerted effort to give it the proverbial mouth-mouth. In reviving this blog, I’d like to take a moment to discuss why blogs crumble and what I can do as a blogger to prevent that from happening again. With the decade ought come a whole new resolve, and this time around I mean business.

A number of factors, as I see it, lead to the demise of a Blog and trust me there are thousands of dead blogs clogging the internet, like a broken down jalopy on the Information Freeway. There are so many, in fact, that when I troll for blogs (usually about art, news, or Fashion) I’ve made it habit to first check the date on which the blog was last updated. If it wasn’t updated in the last two weeks chances are it won’t be updated in the next two, or ever again if we want to be realistic. So why is and how is that blogs find themselves in the so called blog graveyard? Well, I can think of four relatively sound reasons. (Please, none of this should be read as me trying to find excuses for my gross neglect. This is simply me justifying to myself why I am not the only one who has neglected her civic duty to keep her blog fresh and dynamic).

The first (and what I see to be the most legitimate reason) a blog dies is that the specific event, the blog was created for passes. This event can be anything from the birth of a child, the marriage of a couple, or Serving as a Peace Corps volunteer in some obscure foreign country. The blog is designed to chronicle specific information about a certain period in time. Obviously, when the time passes the blog to will wiggle its way into the ground. This will most likely be the C.O.D. of the blog you are reading right now. Someday in the not so distant future I will no longer have stories about crab elbows or tro-tros to share and my life in America hardly warrants the kind of rigorous public scrutiny blogging can offer.

The second reason, (possibly the most optimistic) is that people grow (for the better) out of their blogs. As we are no longer living in the age of pretty pink diaries with heart shaped locks tucked snuggly under our Serta mattresses, blogs come to rescue as our outlet for our deepest darkest thoughts, that used to be so safely kept under lock and key. The mentality of someone who blogs in this way, is baffling, but if I really think about it, I can see the logic. Perhaps making seemingly insignificant but incredibly personal information so ridiculously public, may in fact, hide it from those who know you best (in the real physical world). An example of this style of blog death would be: maybe you started a blog as a freshman in high school to channel your ultra-angsty insignificant thoughts, but upon graduating high school (and potentially being struck by lightning) you’ve realized any additional subject matter you discuss should be placed at totally different URL altogether. Regardless, people change, things happen and eventually a blog may not serve the purpose it was originally intended to serve. I propose we all be held responsible for maintain “Blog Mission Statements”, which would be displayed at the top. That would save blog trollers like me, a whole lot of time and effort looking for “the good stuff”.

Thirdly, a blogger doesn’t know what he is getting himself into and simply lacks the drive and stamina to keep the blog fresh. There is simply no excuse for this. If you are too lazy to update a blog, you are probably too lazy to think of anything worth read to post on it (save hilarious pictures of puppies and the occasional must-see YouTube clip). Perhaps bloggers should be given training blogs in the beginning and if they can prove themselves consistent posters, then they will be allowed to blog with the big dogs. Laziness, has never, and will never, be a legitimate excuse for anything (except, I’ve found, occasionally in West Africa). These people should be fined for their slacking.

Fourthly, and potentially most rarely, the technology which you use to maintain your blog goes missing or becomes increasingly unreliable. This is what I like to call the Peace Corps Volunteer excuse. Whether, it is always true that our blogs generally go astray (save Brendan and Guillermo), it is certainly easy to tell our friends and family this is the case. The internet connections, if you can find them, are frustratingly slow and rarely working due to the requirement of consistent electricity, which has also become a bit of a novelty item. Technological excuses aside, we also lose perspective at a staggering pace. Sometimes we, as volunteers constantly encouraged to integrate with rural undeveloped communities, simply find ourselves in experiencing something totally ludicrous which all of the sudden becomes commonplace and insignificant to us. For example, I have a friend in the Volta region who takes part in the sacrificing of no less than 7 animals a week. I am told he has some pretty rowdy river Gods that require extra attention. I’m sure he’s blogged about it once or twice but when the ritual happens every day it hardly seems reporting to an already waning fan group. Another example, I am writing these posts from the comfort of my home on a Thursday afternoon because classes were canceled for some sort of all school sports competition. In America, this would never be a last minute surprise. It would have been carefully planned, voted, on and compensated for in exchange for teacher workshop days. Here, in Ghana, it is just another surprise day off.

I would like to put my neglect under category number four due to the fact that majority of my blogs take the basic form of SILLY/UNUSUAL PICTURE coupled with WITTY PICTURE EXPLANATION AND REFLECTION. Well, we all know by now one of my conniving students stole my digital camera around Halloween which made my comfortable style of blogging virtually impossible. For this, I apologize. I have since, by the grace of my sweet sweet mother and father and fellow PCV Sonya’s sister, received a new camera and can resume my comfortable posting style. (After this explanatory post, of course).

But, like I said it is a new decade and I have a feeling the 10’s are going to bring us nothing but blue skies, bountiful harvests, and regular blog posts. Now all I have to do is not lose my camera and pray to God that the internet connection here doesn’t get any worse than it already is.