Sunday, June 11, 2006

A thought

Maybe it's just jetlag, but is blogging the new tamagotchi?

Discuss.

17 comments:

patroclus said...

In that you're nurturing a community of readers/commenters? Very possibly. Only hopefully we won't actually die if you forget to feed us.

Don't forget to feed us, though.

Tim F said...

I was thinking of it the other way round - that the readers/commenters nurture and sustain the blog, without which it would die.

It's not a perfect analogy, because of course the blog isn't directly dependent on readership. Some bloggers don't even accept comments. But the blogger's commitment to the blog can be reinforced by readership; and when that fades, the blogger can lose interest. Maybe?

I'm also wondering if blogging will suddenly become sooo 2006, and everyone will deny ever having done it. Like CB radio.

patroclus said...

I think the analogy works better the other way round - as you, the author, have the vested interest in the blog. We, the readers, are just the variables (algorithms, heh heh) that may or may not have an influence on the direction your blog takes and whether it lives or dies.

I thought about this some more, and ended up thinking that for some people, blogging is more like a Sims game than a tamagotchi, in that you tend to end up dealing with a whole community of other characters, rather than just the one entity.

Er, only the other 'characters' are actually real (if often anonymous or semi-anonymous), so in that case it would be more like 'life'.

"Real life - a bit like a Sims game". That may be the geekiest thing I've ever said. Must go outside immediately and interact with real people.

Am I making any sense? I'm not even jetlagged. But I have been up since 5.30.

Oh, and I think blogging will follow the same hype curve as any new technology, in that it'll grow steadily for a few years (check), then suddenly be hyped to death in the media (check), loads of people will start blogging (check), loads of people will then stop (check), the media will pronounce it as being 'so 2006' (yet to happen), and quietly in the background an appreciable number of people will just continue doing it without making a fuss.

Billy said...

What about when you start amending things you put on the blog so that you get more comments?

Erm... not that I do this of course. *ahem*

Spinsterella said...

Isn't blogging already sooo 2005?

(Or possibly even 2004?)

I mean, I'm doing it, and I'm completely behind the times with everything

epikles said...

blogging? who blogs?

maybe in a broader sense also like the 'game of life', where existence depends on the surrounding connections - a mutual dependence. the blogger becomes dependent on the readers who become dependent on the bloggers for their own 'growth' as well. some blogs lose authorship, some lose readership, some lose both, and meanwhile other communities are popping up or shutting down all over the place - if it could be mapped from the outside (fractally, of course!) it might even look like the lifecycles of galaxies - with apologies to stephen wolfram (sorry for the inarticulation!)

patroclus said...

I always wondered what a blog map would look like. A map of links, I mean - whereby you could map your position in the overall blogosphere. This is an early attempt at that kind of thing, but frustratingly it doesn't work for me.

Nice namecheck for the boy Wolfram, as well. I've got 'A New Kind Of Science', but I can't say I've actually read it, or if I would understand it if I did.

Wyndham said...

You people are just all too clever for me. I hope I'm not going to be intimidated this week.

Tim F said...

Don't be. I bet everyone just talks about the football.

the ink slinger said...

Nonsense.

Everyone knows it's the new conkers.

Garth said...

What is this tammigotcha of which you speak? New drug?

West said...

What's that thing that you get when you see hallucinations brought on by lack of sleep - sounds a bit like tammigotchacallit?

Anyroad, what ever it is, THAT'S like SOOOOOOOO 1947.

Bob

p.s. is this an appropriate forum in which to say what a cunt Ann Coulter is?

Thought not. (trudges back off to 1947 for a quick bout of sleep-deprived Sudoku in the mud with Claire Nasir, who wasn't even alive in 1947 - although, come to think of it, neither was I....

Kirses said...

if my blog were a tamagotchi - it would have been long dead by now - in which case - I am just flogging a dead blog??

Kirses said...

if my blog were a tamagotchi - it would have been long dead by now - in which case - I am just flogging a dead blog??

Anonymous said...

In a word, no. Tamagotchi Connexion Version 3 is the new tamagotchi. Blogging is just new(ish). It's not a new version of anything, imho.

And blogging isn't particulatily '2006' either, it's been around a lot longer than that. I know people who've been blogging since the 1990's.

Unknown said...

it's just jetlag.

Tim F said...

I don't know whether Matthew's irony glands have shut down, or mine have.

WV: "lxogiurp". I can't think of a plausible definition, but it sounds good, doesn't it?