Regular readers noticed that I went ten days without a post. I was a little worried about this when I started Paper Notes In A Digital World. Could I step on to the treadmill of constantly churning out new material? Could I do that and not feel pressured to produce? I thought I could. Alas, I have learned that my blog's theme of back-to-analog is exciting, but not so exciting that I feel the need to offer up thoughts to the digital world each day. In that respect, I have failed. I plan to write here less frequently and try not to feel like I have bombed. There's such a pressure that many bloggers put on themselves to produce each and every day. I am one of those - and it's made me feel overwhelmed.
As much fun as Paper Notes is, I much prefer writing on paper. Obviously that is what motivated me to start this blog in the first place, but I think the very motivation has kept me from writing about it in the digital world. And the digital world....there's just sooo much. We've all heard the worn-out phrase, "information overload," a thousand times. However, how else do you describe this feeling of a crush of websites, blogs, newspapers online, magazines online, databases, search engines, wiki this and wiki that? Every day it seems there are new sites for listmaking, calendering, email, chat, template-looking sites that all search, manipulate and offer information in hundreds of different ways. Web 2.0 is leaving me web weary.
I'll still be here. But I am not going to feel like Paper Notes In A Digital World must have something new all the time. Recipe for blogging suicide? Maybe. If you think about it, this was inevitable when I typed my first word in this blog. By definition, almost, this post was destined to be written.
Dear Mike,
Please don't at all feel like you are "bombing" as a blogger! Some of my favorite blogs are only infrequently updated, and a couple of them took almost a year off and then re-appeared, to cheers and clapping. I am a slow blogger, myself, reflecting on things for quite a while (often playing with the thoughts in my real, paper, journal) before posting.
Anyway, all of your readers who are subscribing to your blog's feed will know right away when you've posted something new (and will be glad!)
Posted by: Christy | February 21, 2006 at 11:10 PM
Bravo! No need to feel worried that there isn't a new post everyday. Interesting posts are more important than quantity of posts.
Posted by: Lawrence Sanders | February 22, 2006 at 03:44 PM
If you'd like to keep the site moving, without the pressure of posting frequently, consider guest posters (or open it to a small group, like Cosmic Variance or bOINGbOING). The additional perspectives, and essays, could be a good break for you, and provide a nice stream of similar thoughts.
Regardless, I enjoy your site. Please enjoy it, however it evolves!
Cheers.
Posted by: Danny | February 23, 2006 at 10:33 AM
Isn't that the point of going back to analogue? (Or, for some of us, never leaving it in the first place?) Not giving in to the rush-rush of instant messaging, and taking the time to think, which all the instantaneous features of technology rob us of. Slowing down to the speed of life.
Posted by: Terry | March 24, 2006 at 11:02 AM
Hey! No need to feel pressure. Look at http://papercasting.net/. Do what he's doing. I'm thinking about doing the same thing. I to started a blog only to realize I much prefer paper so I stopped posting. I think if I were to start up a blog and just use scans or pictures of what I write on paper, I would have several years worth of posts already!
PHIL
Posted by: phil | May 13, 2006 at 09:50 AM
Thanks for popping over to our blog and sharing your lunch with us! :)
Linda and Karen
Posted by: linda woods | September 22, 2007 at 01:57 AM