Are we (as a blogging community) too insular?
Sometimes I can’t help but wonder – in this great big blogging community of ours, are we just talking to each other? Are we really ‘reaching’ people out there?
I’ve seen so many RUOK posts lately. I have no issue with RUOK Day – it is an excellent way to encourage people to really connect and brings mental illness into the spotlight. (I’d probably have a cracker post or two to write about mental illness, but for me the internet isn’t where those stories belong.)
Part of me feels that mental illness is in some way connected to blogging. I don’t know of many (if any) bloggers that have not had their lives touched by mental illness in some way.
It’s like turning to the person next to you at a Whitlams gig and asking if they like comedy, the Labor party or red wine. Chances are, they’ll think you’re a mind reader and you’ll have found a new best friend.
So is ‘speaking out’ to this community really speaking out at all? Are we just preaching to the screwed converted?
Jokingly this morning I tweeted “Reading all the #RUOK posts and wondering if anyone is actually okay, ‘cos it seems like we’re all screwed.”
One person replied and said they were okay. ONE PERSON.
So. You tell me. Are we reaching anyone? Or are we just talking to each other?
21 Dinorawrs
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I was going to reply but it wasn’t going to be a positive one. I retweeted, because yes, we are all scerwed :\
I need ot get out more.
Fiona recently posted..Thank You
A discussion doesn’t have to be all positive. I hope you’re feeling better this weekend x
I made some positive moves. I booked in to see a GP . Mostly so I have one and cos the last time my blood pressure was taken it wasn’t great.
And I called our EAP provider to get in to see someone through them for a few sessions. Hopefully will be enough for me to reinstate my good habits and strastgeies.
Making positive moves has taken some of that edge off in itself.
Fiona recently posted..Thank You
All it takes is a few positive moves, and before you know it things start to look up x
Yes, I do think we’re too insular and that my RU okay day stuff that makes a difference, won’t be the mention of it on my blog, but the actual question I ask of my IRL friends.
Blogging is a microcosm. We’re already pretty much at the same point, so I’m not entirely sure we’re reaching anyone new.
I do know that some of my posts, while knowing that my regular readers will like/empathise with, are posts written solely for that one person, at the end of their tether, googling for certain keywords and finding me.
Veronica recently posted..Walking into walls
I haven’t read any posts yet but I have heard a lot about the ruok blogging events. I had wondered if I would ever be brave enough to write one of those posts? If I would feel comfortable writing that stuff online? I still haven’t yet but I do think prompting us to approach others to see I’d they are okay is an excellent initiative.
Fee @ oh gorgeous baby recently posted..Who puts the colour in your world?
Hi Fee – I agree, it’s an excellent initiative, and should be published regardless of a possible audience. I certainly wouldn’t be able put that kind of thing online, but that’s a totally personal choice.
x
I’ve wondered this too, on and off. Actually had an interesting conversation about it at blogopolis as well.
Maybe as bloggers we’re more open to commenting and being seen in the community? I have a couple of non-bloggy readers who make themselves known to me. Maybe the rest are my parents lol.
I’ve committed to an RUOK post and haven’t done it yet because I am okay. And I feel a bit pissy after reading so many heartbreaking posts. Of course I’m not *always* okay, but I usually am. And my experiences with not okay aren’t mine to share.
Tricky.
katesaysstuff recently posted..Things I Know: About Holland.
I hadn’t ‘commited’ to one as such, I’d planned on it, to share what I’d shared in my workplace, I just had some shitty news this week, and past month, that spilled over into my blog and pushed me into a darkish place myself. Not what I’d planned :\ But then some crapboiled over at work, and I realised I wasn’t as okay as I’d thought. Still feel guilty about it becoming about ME at work when it wasn’t suppsed to go that way!!
Fiona recently posted..Thank You
I think in the midst of all these ruOK posts your perspective of “usually ok” will be refreshing and interesting. I would love to read the other perspective of how you feel asking others if they are ok, being that audience. And being aware enough to be part of this campaign. Do you know what I mean? Without sharing the stories that aren’t yours to share, just your side of things.
DanielleQ recently posted..This thing called ‘R U Ok?’ Day #ruOK
Very tricky indeed – while I am less than OK most of the time, the more important stories I have about mental illness are not mine to tell.
I suppose if the RUOK posts do help someone, they’re unlikely to make it known.
x
Sometimes I write to get the words out of my head, sometimes I write because I am thinking in public and organising my thoughts. Other times I will write a post as an educator, and these posts I am careful to have key phrases in the title and opening sentences aimed at that googler who needs to read my words.
Recently I had a parent land on my blog with the search phrase, “I think my teenage daughter has Ehlers Danlos” They read all my EDS posts and then left via Veronica and Bendy girls blogs. That makes me extraordinarily happy. That is how I use SEO, not for money making but for educating.
I think we are insular only if we want to be insular. Good post Liz xx
frogpondsrock recently posted..Things I know #2
This was definitely a ‘get the words out of your head’ post. I have a lot of them, but most of the time I can’t really get the point across. I’m not even sure I did in this post, tbh! As I replied to Tiff, I didn’t even consider google searches. I’m glad the info is getting out there :)
x
This is a great post and something I’ve thought about a lot. We are like a big circle of like minded people and yes, to some extent I think we do only reach other bloggers but it’s that one person who sends me an email, who says they’d found the blog searching for hep because their child had an immune deficiency or because they wanted to find out about donating blood that makes me think that we are reaching outside of our circle, if only just one person.
PS I’m okay :)
Tiff recently posted..Up until now.
I’m glad to hear you’re okay Tiff – I hope that is still the case after this last weekend! Good point on the google searches – I didn’t consider that. Your blog is one of the few I thought genuinely did reach people – both for immune deficiency and blood donation. The number of people that have donated blood just because of Ivy is amazing.
x
It is interesting to ponder… I think it’s kind of common for there to be these niches in the world, online and otherwise. As for reaching anyone, with the ruOK day thingy, I expect it to be more informative to my friends and acquaintances on facebook, when it pops up on my profile, rather than informing my blog readers exactly.
I also write sometimes more honestly than I would otherwise just for the chance of my writing being valuable to someone in the future or someone I don’t know… like a kind of solidarity?
As for the twitter convo thing, definitely preaching to the – ahem – converted. LOL.
DanielleQ recently posted..This thing called ‘R U Ok?’ Day #ruOK
Hi Danielle! Good point – I am insular myself in that friends and family don’t often/at all read my blog – something I overlooked in the above post. I love that somehow blogs make people more honest. It’s a nice thing, I think.
x
I think to a certain extent we are insular in the blogging community, but I have experienced some great advice and support through the blogging community when I haven’t felt OK.
I have also been approached for help via my blog and tweeting, which when I can and try and help if its my field of work.
As long as the message is getting out there and people what ever they are be it bloggers and non bloggers & they see that its Ok to ask for help, then that’s a good thing.
Fab post :)
Thanks Nathalie – I’m glad to hear that it has helped you and that you have been able to help others. This is where I was in the dark – I didn’t see evidence of it going either way. But I agree, getting the message out there is more important sometimes than not putting it out there because you don’t think it’ll reach anyone.
x
I think you’re wagging the dog by the tail, actually. If you look around and find that most everyone in the blogging world is somehow affected by mental illness and assume from that that mentally ill people blog, you may be missing the bigger picture – ironically, you may actuallly be being insular (and I’m not having a go, please keep reading). Mental illness actually affects most people in society – not just in blogging – the issue is, bloggers tend to be the kind of people who talk about it publicly, not all bloggers as you pointed out, but many. I know many, many people outside the blogosphere; through my kids school, through uni, through family and friends, and community groups and everyone is somehow affected by mental illness. Depression affects so many more people than most people are even aware of, as does anxiety. Therapy is a growth industry! A friend and I were laughing about this the other day because we couldn’t think of a single person in our lives who wasn’t suffering or hadn’t at some time suffered from some form of mental illness; anxiety, depression, borderline personality disorder, schitzophrenia, etc and so forth (most of those people were not bloggers). So, really, what is normal? And why would anyone think mental illness was avtrait of bloggers?
Sif recently posted..Things I know: About Not Being Okay…
Hi Sif!
You’re right – I was, ironically, being insular. I guess my experience is I know of too many people in my wider social group that do not believe mental illness exists, no matter what the evidence. Or if they do agree it exists, they believe it is something to be ashamed of. I’d like these messages to reach those people, not just the ones that know it’s okay.
I definitely wouldn’t suggest that everyone who blogs has a mental illness though, which is why I used the term ‘touched by’ – I meant that they at least have some knowledge of it due to friends/family/life.
Thanks for your comment :)
x