First, read the slow blogging manifesto.
I find this concept curious. Especially, this sums it up, from the so-called manifesto:
It is an affirmation that not all things worth reading are written quickly, and that many thoughts are best served after being fully baked and worded in an even temperament.
It all comes from a post from Beyond School describing a 21-year old blogger who feels too caught up in, what I presume, he’d call fast blogging.
My point, really, is how do you tell the well-crafted quality of a quick post, from a slow, considerate one?
I guess I gave up long ago. Blogs might be good, but if I wanted a “slow blog” I’d read a book. But what about these young folks who live in digital text today? Is this the new distinction, not of paper vs. pixels, but the amount of time it takes to consider, communicate and “post”?
December 8th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
John, I think the guy’s context and argument are larger than your frame. He’s responding to the “the internet is dumbing us down” meme, and doing much more than talking about fast versus slow blogging. He’s talking about what techno-literacy is doing to his learning, his memory, his writing, maybe his consciousness in general. The manifesto sentence you quote isn’t large enough to encompass what he’s getting at – it doesn’t sum things up at all, I would argue.
Slow down and read his post, eh?
December 9th, 2008 at 7:48 am
Clay,
I was responding directly to the concept of slow blogging. I made reference to the post you linked to (http://postpunknerd.wordpress.com/2008/11/25/me-my-blog-i/) as a courtesy, where I first encountered this “slow blogging” concept.
I did read SP Greenlaw’s post, however, and you are right, there is a wide gamut of issues.
“We do not let the hasty animal aspects… to impinge on what should be deeper, slower processes. Reading. Thinking. Creating. Sharing.”
This is sort of the sentiment behind slow blogging, I guess, but he says something else, that I think needs context:
“For me the internet has been a 24 hour McDonald’s drive-thru window.”
His account is very personal, and I think it says a lot about him. I think the perspective is valid, but I agree, it goes far beyond the concept of slow blogging.
What I think is important, and chose not to write about (likely because time is required for more personal research on my part) is… just because one person on the Internet thinks xyz about his learning, does it apply to anyone? I hunch is “no, it doesn’t.” I can see how the Internet is distracting (as I have heard of folks losing their job over the inability to fight surfing while at work), but it isn’t for all of us.
The issue may be self-control and an ability to focus. But is that the technology or the person? These are far deeper questions than I ever wanted to address in a “call out” to the idea of taking your time before posting that next blog entry.
I thought just long enough to know I’m not the one best equipped to determine all those answers.
December 9th, 2008 at 11:20 am
The effects of Internet use is a conversation that’s already been played out about a million times. Slow blogging is the newer concept worth discussing…
…although it turns out, it’s the same discussion.
The whole thing is like saying “I used to dance ballet, and I was good at it and enjoyed it. Now, I lift weights, and that’s made me a really, really good weight lifter, but I’ve realized I don’t dance ballet anymore. Isn’t that horrible? Isn’t weight-lifting horrible for making me dance ballet less?”
Ballet isn’t going to become a lost art, and if you feel so bad about it, stop lifting weights all the time and go back to ballet.
The truth is that as time passes, things change, including which skills are in demand and more useful. It was interesting to read the first 25 blog posts about it when all my favorite bloggers first realized it…but now it’s getting pretty boring.
December 10th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Hi John,
I’m with you on the “one flu does not an epidemic make” point (and I agree with Dave that the issue itself is, like most in the echo-chamber, nothing new – but found Greenlaw’s personal framing of it compelling; plus I just like the young man’s mind and style). But the “self-control” angle somehow strikes me as an “anybody can quit smoking” solution to the addictive nature of tobacco (and I’m smoking as I type this
). New or old, this addiction topic interests me as a writer who, like Greenlaw, wishes he could write that book instead of posting those posts, and as a teacher who has invested a lot of energy and faith in the efficacy of blogging to improve learning and literacy.
But I hear you on the purpose of your post.