Lost In Cyberspace

One of the things that seems to be constantly mentioned in the blogosphere is "the conversation", a lot of the Web 2.0 sites and applications seem to be set up just to do that very thing, whether it be through tracking your comments on other blogs with "coComments" or trying to build a sense of community with "MyBlogLog". Our on-line conversation situation is really no different than that in real life. But a major problem with this is that most of us don't really know how to converse. Conversation is often called "the lost art", many blaming the hectic pace of life in the western world and the evil TV that sucks up so much of peoples leisure time. Sitting around for a whole evening with friends just eating a meal and listening to each other when there is so much else we just "have" to do can at times seem more of a trial than a pleasure. Darren Rowse over at ProBlogger.net has posted a very interesting article about blogging and how to add to the conversation rather than just repeating what we may have read elsewhere:

One of the criticism that is often levelled at the Blogosphere is that it is an echo chamber - that the same stories get blogged about in the same ways by blog after blog - without anything constructive or unique emerging.

This has set me to thinking about some of my own posts and how much value they may or may not have added. I guess I am as guilty as most new bloggers of making that basic mistake, but hopefully having read through Darren's article I will be a little more aware of this and do what I can to rectify the situation. Take the time to go read it, digest it and see what you think you can apply, in blogging and in the real world. This is one of the points that he made that really struck home to me:

I suspect most of us as bloggers don’t really put enough time into our blogging. We want to get posts up quickly - we want to report the news and be first with it - but we rarely stop and hear what is going on behind the story and hear what others are saying about it.

That is something I will be trying to take to heart a little more in the future. Which point do you think you might find most helpful to you?

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