Our take on Slow blogging

I spotted a post over at Savette recently that really made me stop and think, and following the slow blogging link on that post, I ended up finding myself totally in agreement with what I believe blogging should be about.

Before we started our blog, we knew nothing of rankings, ratings, awards, etc. We never even realised just what a community there is out there in the blogging world. Of course, there are truly wonderful things about being part of the blogging community and I have written before about how at times it feels like the most support we get comes from reading other blogs. But the downside of the 'social' side of blogging is the pressure to keep up.

It never was our intention for the blog to take on a life of it's own and whilst we certainly don't feel we have to blog everyday, I do feel like we are not 'proper' bloggers because we don't have the time or energy to be on twitter or other social media to any real extent.

I used to spend a LOT of time on facebook on my own personal facebook page, but when the kids started making so many comments about it, I realised I had to cut down (and I have). Combined with knowing that I have many of J's Asperger traits when it comes to social communication (and that includes online!), then I have largely steered clear of twitter. In fact, I find that although I can see how easily it could become a lifeline for those times that I feel trapped at home with the kids, I also find it totally overwhelming. I can only really cope with it in very short bursts for things like twitter parties or twitter chats focussed on a specific topic.

As for social etiquette - it is far worse than anything face to face, with only those 140 characters to play with and not having a clue whether you are supposed to reply to, favourite, retweet, or do anything else to a tweet, I am left utterly confused! Then I worry whether I have said something wrong, not replied in time, favourited the wrong thing - A whole social minefield for me!!!

But knowing that so many other bloggers are so easily combining social media and blogging makes me feel like we are failing by not doing so. Which I know is silly to feel that way because a blog is supposed to be a blog for you and doing it in the way that works for you.

So it was really just such a relief to find out about slow blogging. Whilst the idea is to slow down and write about only what truly inspires you, it feels like we are giving ourselves permission to do as little or as much as we want. By giving ourselves that permission, it may mean that we blog more often or less often - I have no idea how it will turn out. But hopefully we will no longer feel any kind of self-imposed pressure to blog.

I know the idea of writing a 'slow' blog post was to write about something that had really inspired you, but the whole twitter / social media pressure has been on my mind for a long time to the extent that it had become a worry. So it feels great to have the opportunity to come clean about all my worries about it in this blog post.