I have one of those RSS thingies that tells me when a blog has been updated, and I have over seventy blogs on that list. There are a few I read with intense concentration, and there are a lot I skim just to keep up or just in case someone talks about one of my favorite topics (baby names! brownie recipes! planning and spacing of babies! ANYTHING of babies!).
The problem with reading so many blogs is that it can give me something I’ve been thinking of as “blogsickness.” It’s when I’ve been reading blogs and then suddenly I feel fed up with all blogs, with all writing, and with everything that everyone has ever said or thought since the beginning of time. That’s when I know it’s time to go sit in the recliner and read a People magazine, or maybe go to bed.
I think usually it’s when I read too many posts about the same topic, or too many posts about topics I’ve read too many posts about before. I’m not sure, though, because I don’t think there’s strict cause and effect here, or any one specific trigger. I think sometimes it’s that I sit down at my computer in a mood that makes me likely to develop blogsickness. It’s never that I read one specific post (or one specific blog) and get blogsickness.
Do you get this, too? If you do, what do you think causes it?
why, am I annoying you? :)
I get that with message boards and I start posting cranky replies to people “oh my GOD just TRY IT AND SEE! why must you ASK!?” because sometimes I forget it’s just casual conversation and wonder why some people apparently can’t raise children without asking a question about every single thing ever.
But blogs, sometimes I’m not into a topic someone I like is writing about, but that doesn’t mean I don’t like them, I’ll just skim that post and save it till I’m really bored later.
There have been entries posted by other parents that made me sad because I disagreed with how they handled things, but I always come back to see what else they are doing.
I can tell you what would clear up my blogsickness with the quickness: a Swistle post on planning and spacing of babies :-)
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I thought you were going to write about idiots like me who hit “publish,” see a glaring error, correct it, and hit “publish” again, thus messing up the RSS thingies.
“Nowheymama doesn’t have six new posts! That lying pinehole!”
I wonder if blogsickness happens after something like the Virginia Tech tragedy, and everyone’s writing is influenced by the same event. Whereas usually we’re all off doing our own thing.
Or maybe it’s just a really boring day in blogland.
[Edited to change my language. I don’t want to end up like Imus.]
Yes, I get blogsickness! I usually stop surfing onto so many blogs for a while.
Just remember: all you need to do is view mine, and you’re set.
Totally kidding. Mine is awful. One of these days I will have More Interesting Posts. About brownies, though, I’m not sure.
I only read about five-ten blogs, tops. I used to read that many and just didn’t have the time or patience or energy. Maybe I’m a lazy blog reader, but I don’t get blogsickness anymore.
Tessie: You have been so patient, and I have been so inexplicably negligent, considering how I love this topic! Soon! Soon!
Nowheymama: I do that too! I can proofread four hundred times and still not see a problem until after I hit publish. Points for use of the word pinehole!
I read about thirty. I don’t get blogsickness necessarily, but I find it really frustrating if I’ve been away from the Internet for more than a day and there is a ton of pressure to catch up. I don’t add blogs to my list very easily. Sometimes I’ll check one out based on an interesting comment they leave somewhere or because more than one person says, “You have to read that!!!” It helps that I read blogs that aren’t just parenting blogs (i.e. some related to my field of study and some by single friends) and that many of the blogs I read are not updated daily. I like the ones that are daily updates because they are some of my favorites and I feel like I can count on that consistency, but if all thirty were updated daily I would have to drop some. There are only so many hours in a day.
There are blogs like mine, which I write mostly for family and friends to see pictures of Harper and know what we’re doing. I think I occasionally have something to say that strikes a larger chord, but I’m not necessarily trying to write for the masses, or even the masses of moms. Having said that, I think it’s totally fun when I’ve connect with people who only know me because of the blog; rather than it only be read by people who knew me first. I can see how mine wouldn’t be one to check every day though — sometimes I only manage one or two new posts a week and I don’t think our lives are all that interesting!
(Um, apparently I should have written my own post on this subject!)
All the VT posts of late have had me a little woozy, but thats about it.
I shouldn’t even admit this but I have over 200 subscritions on my google reader. If I see everyone is writing about the same thing, I just skip those posts.
YESSSS! *Dwight Schrute fist pump*
Sometimes I feel like I’m getting too wrapped up in other people’s blogs, so I have to give myself a break. I always appreciate when you comment on my blog, though! =)
I don’t know what causes blogsickness, but I definitely get it too, and I don’t read nearly as many as you do on a regular basis. Sometimes it’s just a computer thing, for me. I just cannot stare at a screen any longer or I will scream.
This is why I could never be a computer programmer or IT person. I would soon have to be locked in a rubber room, where I would sit in the corner rocking back and forth, my hands clenched around an invisible mouse.
lI get blogsick reading blogs that aren’t well-written or entertaining. Too much rambling or too many typos and I just can’t read it.
That said, I NEVER miss a chance to read you or Sundry!
I hear you, Swistle. I get teh blogsickness too sometimes. But I usually just close the computer for a couple of days and then catch up on the blogs I missed and not bother with the ones I didn’t. And I would LOVE to hear more about the spacing and number of children. I have a post swirling around in my head about whether or not we will have a third and if so, when, but I’m not ready for my real-lifers to be in on that yet. So I am very anxious to hear all about you! How did you know you wanted #3 (and 4 and 5!)? What are your thoughts on all things baby spacing related?
I have 93 blogs in my feed right now, and over 200 new posts I haven’t caught up on. It does give me blogsickness sometimes, because I feel like I HAVE to read them all. Gives me stress about not being caught up.
But who would I delete? I mean, I just added you today. :)
Kelli in the Mirror: I have that same thing–I might get overwhelmed, but I can’t DELETE anyone! I have to find out what HAPPENS.