Tag: blogging

Posting Less

Kevin DeYoung has a nice article up on why you should think before you post. I thought it was helpful.

This is actually why I don’t blog much anymore.

First, there are too many people that I feel obliged not to speak poorly of in public. I don’t want to reflect poorly on my wife, my kids, my extended family… Worst of all, due to my job, I don’t want to reflect poorly on the United States Government. Do you have any idea how difficult that is?

But secondly, I want to say things that are worth reading. Less flippant, rather than more. I don’t want to say something that somebody else has already said, unless I can say it even better. I don’t want to say anything better left unsaid. I don’t want to say anything important that hasn’t been sufficiently thought through.

Currently, I find that I have plenty of time for shallow and summary reading, plenty of time to go, “huh!”, but not much time for thorough reflection. So I find that I have plenty to share from other people, but not much to say of my own. That’s not because I don’t have much to say, but I don’t have the time to say it in the way that I would like.

As a result, the blog often gets left untended. Facebook and Twitter become my friends. Facebook has much better link sharing, for instance. And for a time, that may be okay.

Fasting the Internet

Yeah, I know – Lent was last week. But with the way my new work schedule comes out, it looks like I have about 2½-3 discretionary hours every day, these hours coming first thing in the morning, since my evenings are really taken up with baby and wife. On the other hand, it’s been working out that reading through my blogs every day actually takes somewhere around an hour and a half. What with my tendency to pad my free time activities, there’s not much room for anything else, and it’s occurring to me that I have some things to do that might be more profitable during that time, such as perhaps jogging, Bible reading, prayer, and guitar.

“Cutting back” is not something that I do very well, and it’s especially so in the area of Internet use. I like to complete things, and Google Reader just lists every blog I read as it’s been updated. Once I start down the list, the urge is to go ahead and finish it. “Cutting back” meats cutting out some of the blogs, which I suppose may happen in time, but initially, it’s a huge time investment. Far easier just to cut out from the blog scene entirely for a while.

But who knows? Maybe more time in my Bible will result in more meaningful blogging, with fewer responses to other blogs.