Splotchy: What is your blog?

Lulu:  Land-o-Lulu

S: When did you start blogging?

L: I started blogging sometime in early 2006.

S: Did you stop blogging?

L: Yes.

S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?

L: Land-o-Lulu started out as a personal blog and became more of a travel blog once I moved overseas to teach. I finally closed it down because while I loved having a lot of readers, the earlier, more personal stuff seemed out of place in a blog that was easily discoverable by students and their parents. I had an experience where I went to a party in Bangladesh, and a woman was introduced to me and said, “Oh, you’re Lulu!  I’ve been reading your blog for ages!”  And it felt very weird and public.

S: Do you ever miss it?

L: I do miss my blog.  For a while, I really enjoyed Facebook, but I don’t post much there these days, partially because it seems like every other post on my feed is an ad, but mostly because many of the people I am interested in keeping in touch with no longer post very often.  I miss having a forum for longer-form writing and photography.

I also miss the community of friends, both real-world and online, that I had the privilege of interacting with while blogging.  Several people I met online became real-life friends, and while many of those people are still in my life now, there was a sense of community that I no longer feel.  

On Instagram stories, there are frequently little post-a-picture-of or ask-me-a-question-type trends, which are fine, but during the golden age of blogging, instead of a picture or question, there would be complicated, round-robin posts, long book reviews, thoughtful discussions of politics, popular culture and whatever else was on people’s minds.  I looked forward to reading my friends’ blogs and to their comments on mine.  

One of the things you learn as a teacher is that student writing is always better when they have an authentic audience reading their work rather than just their teachers.  And I think the same thing is true for all of us.  When I knew that a couple hundred people were going to read my writing, I cared about it more. I spent more time crafting my words and trying to make things funny.

S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again?  Why or why not?

L: I don’t think so. I feel like the golden age of blogging is over.  It seems like all the blogs I see are either corporate blogs or people trying to commodify their writing, and neither of those things is of interest to me. I am also very aware that any sort of online presence that isn’t squeaky clean can be problematic for teachers.  I live in a conservative country and work at a very prestigious school; I don’t need to draw any attention to myself. 

Sometimes I think about doing a podcast, but that seems like a lot of effort and equipment, and so many podcasters are annoying.  I would hate for people to think I am annoying.

S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?

L: My presence on social media is scaled way back.  I do the birthday greetings thing on Facebook, and occasionally post travel or food photos there or on Instagram.  I do post a lot of aggressively political memes on my Instagram Stories, but my audience there is very limited, and the stories disappear in 24 hours, so I feel like I can’t do too much damage.  During COVID, my friend Jane and I ran a cocktail Instagram account called Drinking_While_Quarantined, and I actually became online friends with a group of people who ran cocktail accounts. It was similar to the blogger days because there was a lot of commenting on each other’s posts and doing themed group posts.  Once we could go outside again, the urge to post photographs of fancy drinks dwindled and the account is mostly inactive these days.  I don’t feel the same sense of engagement with social media that I once did, mostly because everything is an ad.  Late-stage capitalism is a bitch.

S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general?  This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.

L: The internet is the worst.  And also the best. We’ve created amazing tools, and we are unable to use them. We have the opportunity to communicate with people all over the world, and we spend our time trolling them on Twitter.  Don’t get me started on ChatGPT.

***************

Thanks so much, Lulu. It was nice hearing your thoughts on things.

Splotchy: What is your blog?

CupOfCoffey: A Cup of Coffey

S: When and why did you start blogging?

CoC: I started blogging in March 2006 because I thought it would be a fun way to stay connected with my friends. I never imagined folks outside my group of friends would read it! I learned so much about life and music and people during my three blogging years. I really miss that connection.

S: Did you stop blogging?

CoC: I did.

S: When did you stop blogging?

CoC: April 2009.

S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?

CoC: I just couldn’t find the time to write a decent post anymore — and joining Facebook allowed me to keep up with those in our blogworld. Facebook is great for lazy interactions.

S: Do you ever miss it?

CoC: All the time! It was a great way to share my life with others and learn about their lives — and I loved doing the Mix Tape Friday posts! There was this lovely intimacy among our blogworld — and yet I’d never seen their faces or heard their voices. It was a lovely connection, wasn’t it? I couldn’t wait to dive into those posts every day. I often think of the stories and the laughter and the tears those posts brought me. So many good, honest writers out there. I learned so much — and I valued the takedowns I got when needed (I’m thinking of you, Coaster Punchman, and still feel filthy shame).

I made so many true friends through our blogworld, just some of the coolest people around. I’ve met a few in person — C.K. Baxter, Thomas Houck, Chris Hull, Jenny Shaw Kessler and Dax Kessler, Grant Miller, Joe O’Sullivan, Fran Szpylczyn, Lisa Williams, and Doug Golden — and I wish I could meet more of y’all. I also met some of my now-dearest friends through A Cup of Coffey, non-bloggers who read my posts.

There was one blogger, Mike Kascynski, who became a dear, dear friend, though we never met. I had planned to meet up with him in Chicago during the summer of 2022, but he died suddenly nearly two years ago. I miss him desperately and regret never seeing him face to face. Y’all get out there and meet people!

It was a beautiful, unique world.

S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again? Why or why not?

CoC: I do consider it on occasion. Maybe once I retire in 2025!

S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?

CoC: I think of social media as lazy blogging. You don’t
need to spend time thinking of a good post idea, then writing and polishing it, then posting it. I can post a photo and I’m done. But what does that say about me? How am I learning about others? I know the foods they like and the books they read, but there’s so much more. I’m a bit more protective of myself on Facebook and Instagram.

S: How do you feel about the state of the internet in general? This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.

CoC: The internet has opened up so much of our world for me. And it’s made my life so much easier. I bank online. Shop online. Travel via apps. Watch movies and shows. Discover music. But I do miss the connection of talking to a bookseller instead of ordering it online (we go to locally owned bookstores, but not as much as we should). I met my husband via Facebook (or re-met; we grew up together, but never really hung out), so that’s wonderful. There is so much good — political organizing, sharing secrets, tracking down that new band. But it breeds so much hatred. I find I’m following news less than I ever have because of that hatred and all the untruths out there.

*******************

Thanks for the interview. It is so wonderful to hear your thoughts!

Oh man, your last post was for the Green Monkey Music Project. When I first announced the GMMP, I said it was inspired by your mixtape Fridays.

By the way, you dropped this, queen:

Splotchy: What is your blog?

VikkiTikkiTavi: Bells On

S: When and why did you start blogging?

V: I started in 2005, although I’d had a blog at Salon before then that has since been deleted.  I’m not sure why I started, except as I go back and look at some of my first posts, it’s clear to me that I really needed to hear myself talk.

S: Did you stop blogging?

V: Yeah, for all intents and purposes.  I still enjoy crafting a essay or even just writing a joke, but somehow it just doesn’t seem worth the effort anymore.  Sometimes I will write a 1000 word post on Facebook and then just delete it.  Facebook’s algorithm is not a big fan of me, so whether I publish or not it seems like the same amount of people will see it.  That’s just how it works there.

S: When did you stop blogging?

V:  It fell off sharply and then petered out during the first couple of years of the Obama administration.  Like other political/comedy writers, I appreciated how easy W made it for us. 

S: What were any factors that contributed to stopping?

V: Twitter and Facebook were huge, and the blogging culture just wasn’t out there anymore.  You know down one side of your blog you would have your blogroll, the blogs that you read, and they were either very big important blogs, or they were friends that you read who also read you.  And everyone just kinda stopped posting.  They were on social media.  It was the end of that short-lived era.

S: Do you ever miss it?

V: Yeah, I miss the camaraderie, and I miss the control that we all had over what we were taking in.  We read what we liked, not what was being fed to us.  We supported each other, and were always expanding our circle to include more people.

S: Do you think you’ll ever pick it up again?  Why or why not?

V: Well, maybe, but probably not.  Talking to an empty room is kinda sad.

S: How do you feel about social media? Does it give you the same feelings as blogging? Why or why not?

V: Social media has its good points and bad points.  On the plus side, Twitter and now Threads has allowed me to listen to and learn from a lot of voices that I never heard before.  And I appreciate keeping up with my friends’ activities on Facebook and Instagram.  But the whole time I’m just very aware of the control that is being exerted over what I see, the monetization of my attention.  

S: How do you feel about the state of the Internet in general?  This is a very broad question, so feel free how to answer as you see fit.

V: I mean, besides all the advantages of information at your fingertips, the internet has taught me not to be a dick to people I care about.  It’s such a cold medium, it’s very easy to be misunderstood, and so I think I am now always aware of how someone will hear what I’m saying.  On the other hand, there are so many garbage people that put themselves in front of you, I’ve also learned how to cut and walk away very quickly.  The internet is useful if you employ a reasonable amount of judgement to what’s out there, and sort of disastrous if you don’t. 

******************

Thanks for this interview, Vikki. I really appreciate your thoughtful answers.