Blog fodder

One of my blogging friends used the phrase, "blog fodder" in a mention of some things from her daily activities that she could write about on her blog. I thought it was a funny phrase, but once I went online to research its meaning, I found this on Urban Dictionary:

blog fodder: an interesting idea, story, or link. Referred to as blog fodder when your first reaction is to use it in your blog. Urban Word of the Day on October 4, 2005.

One of the main differences in my life today and back in 2005 is that I am now a dedicated blogger and reader of personal blogs. I wrote a post in January of this year about the expanding blogosphere. Today I was thinking about how different my life is when everything is possible blog fodder. My daily activities, random thoughts, movies, books I read, and relationships are fair game (with some caveats about respecting the privacy of others).

Today I live my life with one thought always tuned to whether or not I could make a good post about any activity. Doesn't that seem like it must change my day-to-day experience in some way? Of course it does. Yesterday while trying to take my mind off the pain in my feet as I slogged back down the road, I began to formulate my post, wondering how to organize it, what to include, what to leave out. It occurred to me that I have an audience of my fellow hikers who read my posts and usually tell me whether they liked it or not and if I had any inaccuracies that need fixing. And, of course, my followers.

The earlier post about the blogosphere mentioned how so many of us social bloggers use Google's blogspot or Wordpress. I found this link to The Future Buzz about blogosphere stats as of 2009:

133,000,000 – number of blogs indexed by Technorati since 2002

346,000,000 – number of people globally who read blogs

900,000 – average number of blog posts in a 24-hour period

1,750,000 – number of RSS subscribers to TechCrunch, the most popular Technology blog (January 2009)

77% – of active Internet users who read blogs

55% – percentage of the blogosphere that drinks more than 2 cups of coffee per day (source)

81 – number of languages represented in the blogosphere

59% – percentage of bloggers who have been blogging for at least 2 years

I started REALLY blogging (as in writing posts on blogspot) in February 2009, so I'm not going to be in the "at least two years" column for a while. And how much will it change between now and then? It's definitely a very dynamic environment. I am just about at my maximum rate of reading and writing, and sometimes I get a little stressed out, afraid I might miss something from my friends' blogs if I don't read them morning and night. I can see how you could get burned out if you don't watch it.

That said, I discovered this very interesting blog that I guess I have to join because it's really good and right up my alley. It's called The Change Blog. Peter writes about his own life and also has regular contributors. I spent an hour over there and just scratched the surface. That's the problem: where do I draw the line? Will I burn out if I'm not careful? Will you?