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Jason Pitzl-Waters on Jun 6th 2009 at 9:26 am Paganism

Pagan Quotations (Blogging Edition)

Pagan author, teacher, and ADF Archdruid Emeritus, Isaac Bonewits explains his increasingly sporadic blog activity, and admits to having some issues with this whole “blogging” thing.

“I’m still a bit unclear as to what a blog is really for, if one doesn’t have something important to rant about day after day.”

I find it difficult to believe that someone of Bonewits’ infamy doesn’t have something to rant about day after day (or at least a couple times a week), I also find it odd that someone who has contributed to Daily Kos in the past isn’t quite sure about the many and sundry uses for the blogging platform (and ultimately a “blog” is just a transmission tool for content). However, I do agree that merely ranting every day isn’t that sustainable, that’s why most of the really successful blogs don’t simply climb up on soap-boxes and howl into the digital void. They share wonderful things, talk about books, promote music they love, provide you tips and tricks to an easier life, and discuss feminist issues. Heck there are even Pagan blogs who manage to find news items to share every day.

Ultimately, I think Bonewits portrays an interesting (and growing) development. Like many people, he’s doing most of his online discussion and interaction on Facebook, and as robust social networking sites become ever more ubiquitous, fewer people will feel the need to create a blog to establish themselves on the Internet. This is a good thing, not everyone is suited to a blogging platform, and we are now reaching a point where there are many ways besides the traditonal long-form regularly-updated blog to get one’s ideas and ideals across. That said, if you are looking for great regular Pagan blogging content (aside from mine, of course) just look to my blogroll, or the in-depth Blog Elysium for a cornucopia of choices, approaches, and points of view.

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9 responses so far

  • http://www.chasclifton.com/blogger.html Chas S. Clifton

    Facebook easily becomes overwhelming — there is a limit to the number of friends you can track.

    Blog posting, on the other hand, is *writing.* Linking is easier than on Facebook. And blog posts can be found through search engines, whereas FB content is not searchable — only users can be searched.

  • http://www.deborahlipp.com/wordpress Deborah Lipp

    I find it difficult to believe that someone of Bonewits’ infamy doesn’t have something to rant about day after day (or at least a couple times a week)

    He does. But he sleeps a lot.

    I agree with Chas. Blogging is real writing. Because I keep Property of a Lady very diverse; a little Pagan, a little humor, a little politics, a lot of movies, it remains simply a personal platform where there's always something to say and where, contrarily, when I feel silent, I am not screwing up a commitment.

  • http://erynn999.livejournal.com Erynn

    I tried FB at one point but I can't stand the interface. To me it's a wasteland; there's no substance and nobody really seems to be saying anything. I prefer my LJ and even my Searching for Imbas blog, which doesn't get updated very often. I see my spirituality as deeply intertwined with my daily life so I post about everything on the LJ and occasional specific CR topics on SFI. To me FB and MySpace are more sound-bytes than actual conversation.

  • http://www.neopagan.net/blog Isaac Bonewits

    I'm not sure whether it's amusing or annoying that the conversation I was hoping would get started on my blog wound up happening here instead.

    But Deb is right. I do sleep a lot. My serious writing energy, when I have it, goes into books and articles. I've always been better at brief summations or long explorations. The in-between size of blog posts is more of a challenge. I really admire people who do it well, as you three do.

    I find Facebook very valuable for networking, promo, and setting up gigs. And I've gotten back in touch with old friends from decades past.

  • http://www.myspace.com/fish4elise Elise Fisher

    But what about those of us who don't USE facebbok?

  • http://mattstone.blogs.com Matt Stone

    I think your right Jason, I see a lot of Christians dropping out of the blogosphere as well as they run out of stuff. The people who're hanging around for the long haul, who are churning out content reliably and avoiding burnout, tend to have more to offer than just rants.

  • http://robslg.bravejournal.com/ Rob Henderson

    If anything, I'm surprised that I still have anything to write about on my blog. I figured after a year I'd give up out of a lack of anything more to say. But I'm also finding Facebook useful too. Go figure.

  • Yewtree
  • DaBroad

    I started a facebook page about 2 years ago. I haven't been back in about 22 months. It seemed kind of pointless, and people were putting things that were way too personal on there. Of course, I've had lots of old friends get in touch with me by conventional means to ask why I haven't updated my page in so long. So, it's had it's uses.

    I find it interesting that whenever you hear about a crime, some mention is made of both the victim's and the perpetrator's Facebook pages. Looking at some of the things people put on there, do they really want that as their final message to the world should they fall victim to a crime today?