I've been thinking of giving up blogging

My frequency of posting has been declining for months now till it's not unusual for me to go a week or two without a word. Three things account for this. First, I've been trying to get more work done on the book. I've been making some big changes to it and writing some big chunks that don't lend themselves to blogging. Second, is despair. This blog has always been most of all a political/current events blog. These days, when I look at the world, I'm either pissed into incoherency or depressed into silence. Third, is my experiment in social media. A year and a half ago, I let myself be talked into Facebook, then Twitter (@archymck), and now I have a Google+ account. These are enormous time wasters but also replacements for blogging. Many of the things I might once have posted about, I now simply link to from one of those sites.

Which brings me back to blogging. On Archy, I have never been one for posting links without commenting on a subject. I don't really like blogs that just say "Heh. link" and call it a post. I feel like I should add some value to my links. Otherwise, aren't I wasting your time by asking you to come to my blog? Yet, that's exactly what I've started doing on the social media sites. Of course, social media forces that practice by limiting posts to 140 or 450 characters. Lately, I've been chafing under those limits and feel the urge to expound on things in ways other than "what he said." Sometimes, I want to expound on things that no one has mentioned this week.

So, I think I'll keep blogging. I'll try to find a way to integrate blogging and social media. Maybe I'll put shorter posts on the blog or start things over there that I can finish over here. Maybe I'll write a manifesto and turn Archy into a world changing movement, sort of like a Glenn Beck rally, only sane. And baby animal pictures; I need to post more baby animal pictures.