20100609

To blog or not to blog?

Taking my morning coffee and making a short survey of the Romanian blogosphere, I get more and more convinced we face a process of erosion.

I have more blogs than ever in my reader, and yet the number of articles I can read have fallen dramatically in the last period. The number of good articles is even lower.

People with a say are tempted to quit blogging, because they feel their effort is in vain. Many of those who started blogging a while ago, even if they keep on writing, have lost their "faith" in blogging, they do not expect anything anymore from it, they do not want to change the world anymore. When I was faced to this, I preferred switching the language.

To summarize, I'd say that, indeed, renewing your blog with each article is a very difficult thing. Finding your voice and having your say is not that easy, after all; and I know it very well myself. But it is not only that. What I feel, in the case of the Romanian blogosphere, is that we changed our expectations about blogging - and that means that we do not see it anymore as a means for changing the society in good. No more ambitions, no more major blogging. Just personal pages and minor blogging.

In my view, this is dangerous.

We find ourselves at a point in time when the society needs its voices loud and clear; and more than ever. Saying that, I am aware that our society is autistic and that dialogue is not one of its constituent virtues (everybody likes to speak, nobody likes to listen) - but this only makes these voices even more necessary. Our hopes that life will improve after joining the EU have turned to dust; our future is uncertain. More than half an year ago I spoke about the necessity of a plan to fight the crisis (which was nothing more than common sense), and NONE of our political parties produced anything resembling a plan. We are running through a nightmare scenario.

And escape is no longer an individual option. We cannot just emigrate, not everybody. We need more than ever citizen journalists with clear heads and documented opinions.

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