by Jane Gassner

Every year in the middle of December, I light a candle to celebrate the birth of my blog.

Six years. That’s how long I’ve been at it. I started when I lived in Los Angeles. I started when no one in my circle knew or cared what a blog was. I have, therefore, weathered a raft of disparaging remarks.

“Blogging? What’s that? Eyes glaze over.

“So you keep like a little online journal?” Earnest, but trying to understand.

“God, I would never do that. Why would I want everyone to know what I’m thinking?” Superior.

“The computer is killing communication, and you’re part of the problem.” Anger.

Los Angeles, considering it shares a state with Silicon Valley, was not too long in catching up with the tides of Web 2.0. Small pockets of bloggers formed, then larger ones and soon there was a Blogging Scene in LA. Of course, I had already left the city and moved to Sacramento. My participation in the Blogging Scene happened only when I was willing to make the trek to LA. That I actually drove the six plus hours to go to parties there is a testament to my need for community, for people who valued my enthusiasm about blogging. In Sacramento, despite its closer proximity to Silicon Valley, eyes were still glazing over when I said I was a blogger. My only partner in crime was Margaret of Nanny Goats in Panties, and we’d meet regularly at the Elk Grove Raley’s for coffee, cakes and endless conversation about her blog and my blog, about blogging in general and in particular and about how shamefully backward Sacramento was.

Well, no more. This year there is at last a Blogging Scene in Sacramento. As evidence of that, there are three (yes, 3!) holiday parties for bloggers and social media people. Last week, we floated down the river on the Hornblower for Sac Tweetup’s second annual HoliTweetup Party. A couple of nights ago, it was the Sac Bee’s Sacramento Connect Holiday Mixer at Hot Italian Pizza. And tonight is News10’s Blogger & Social Media Holiday Cheese and Cider Bash. Be still, my beating heart….

As much as I’m thrilled to have a Blogging Scene here, I feel less certain about the state and the fate of blogging in general. About now, you’re expecting me to offer a succinct sentence or two about why I feel uncertain. Except I can’t. Because I’m not sure what’s amiss in the blogosphere. All I can tell you is this: I’m not reading many blogs anymore.

I used to daily trawl through my Google Reader; now, it sits unlinked to for days. I think it’s because blogs are no longer a window into the blogger’s mind or heart or day to day stuff that enabled me to feel as if they were a friend whose life I was sharing albeit at a distance. Now blogs are a branding tool; they’re a vehicle for marketing one’s packaged self, the one that’s been constructed (often with the help of professional marketers) to appeal to one’s niche audience. As such, they must conform to the pre-determined parameters of the brand, and that quickly becomes boring, predictable, and–did I mention–boring.

So while I’m enjoying this holiday season that Sacramento finally has a Blogging Scene, but I’m not so sure it will be here in 2011.

Photo credit: rethnaraj.blogspot.com