Did all the angst, confusion and cognitive dissonance that had been brewing from the crash of modernity and orthodoxy just dry up? Are all the issues resolved and have those old bloggers simply lost interest? Was the community held together by a couple of heavy bloggers like Mis-nagid or Godol Hador and once they moved on the other people left as well? Or did the party move elsewhere and nobody left directions?
I get it that hashing and rehashing issues is unfulfilling and ultimately boring, but was there no curious young people around to keep the conversation fresh? Or not enough of those who were willing to delve deeper into these issues to come out with something more productive on the other end? Maybe those deeper delvers went and became the founders of sites like theTorah.com (a very good site by the way, which I recommend), with a much more professional appearance compared to the casual coffee shop-like venue of a personal blog.
I thought that a few years ago the "Orthoprax" were getting all this attention from rabbinic articles and published papers. Not good attention, mind you, but attention nonetheless. Presumably, the goals of those articles were to quash orthoprax sentiments among the ranks - and if so, perhaps the quiet out there is evidence of their apparent success.
As for me, my time of relative blog silence coincided with much novel busyness in my personal life. This did not leave much time for metaphysical introspection, much less for an involved blogging hobby. But that's just me - where did everybody else go?
Come back.
Come back.
14 comments:
I've been wondering the same thing.
http://2nd-son.blogspot.com/2015/01/where-have-all-skeptics-gone.html
There were multiple reasons why I stopped my relatively short blogging career.
- So much has already been said and it became harder & harder to find something unique to write about.
- The excitement of expressing my own skepticism in print wore off as I moved to a secular lifestyle.
- Little reward when you feel that what you are writing about is like shooting fish in a barrel. So many of the OrthoFundie claims seemed as silly as that of young earth creationists.
- Most importantly, I'd rather spend the time doing something else.
I still do enjoy reading skeptiblogs. If you haven't seen it, I recommend
kefirahoftheweek.blogspot.com.
True, once the veneer of fundamentalist Judaism is cracked it's interesting for awhile to jump through all its major and minor idiosyncrasies. I did that for a time in the interest of philosophically clearing the field, but eventually it gets tiresome. At this point I'm more interested in building something where Judaism can be intellectually sound while also true to itself.
I guess I'm just surprised so few others seem interested in such a project.
I think a big part of the dying out is that most of the conversations moved to Facebook. As everyone can attest to, the quality of the conversations there is abysmal compared to what the old blogger threads were like, but still, since that's where everyone is hanging out, that's where people are focusing their attention.
Also, people move on (hopefully), and things which were preoccupying them so immensely stop garnering so much of their mental energy. That's what happened with me a lot.
And like you said, basically everything that there is to say, has been said. Rehashing this stuff over and over gets tiring.
It's a pleasure seeing many of my favorite bloggers commenting here. Thank you all for the insightful and enjoyable posts you have produced. I totally understand the moving on. (And share the disappointment that the current place is facebook and its very different flavor.) I hope you are all doing well.
I swear on theTorah.com that I was thinking about you just yesterday and wondering what happened to you.
Anyhow, I agree with Hedyot. The conversation moved to Facebook which is unfortunately geared to short soundbites, not the well thought out blog posts that we used to love.
I hope all is well with you.
Brings back memories. Glad to hear from you again.
Such good questions. Where are all the 30 year olds struggling? I guess they are on Facebook, but since they are not anon there they can't express themselves as they would otherwise, it's too darn bad. They are probably ready to explode,
I still read some of your posts (and test comments) from time to time.
Facebook? Blech. How disappointing.
>a very good site by the way, which I recommend
Yuck!
HH,
What's the matter?
theTorah.com is the academic version of Cross Currents. Have you noticed how they eliminated the comment section lately? For a site that touted open community discussion in their mission (which has been removed), the level of censorship was ridiculous.
Time for a resurgence! Check out www.TheSpiritualSinner.com
We need to fight again...and win.
I know I'm answering this 2 years later, but... everyone went to Facebook. The blogs survived not just because of the posts, but because of the lively comments sections. With fer commenters, bloggers accurately feel like no one's reading don't really have an incentive to post.
Post a Comment