Once upon a time, quite a long time ago, I looked forward to the post. Especially if I was living in another country.
That was followed by a comparatively short phase of going straight to the answaphone when I returned home. 
And that excitement was replaced by checking my emails.
Today the post rarely brings anything I want to read. What is left in this technology dominated era are communiqués from the Inland Revenue, and bills from organisations not taken care of by standing order or direct debit. From time to time a second hand DVD, courtesy of Amazon. And our answaphone rarely has any interesting messages.
Because of course email has replaced so many phone calls. Slow to embrace technology of the 21st century, I've only relatively recently purchased a mobile phone I consider to be 'mine'. And I'm not particularly into texting, perhaps because I'm so comfortable with email. Perhaps because I'm simply not 'cool'.
But what has become an interest is checking my blog statistics. Perhaps because writing can be an isolating thing to do, and one which often yields little, if any, feedback, the checking to see who's read my latest blog is justifiable. It is feedback. It's an affirmation. It could be enough to keep me going on a day when anything I type onto the screen seems low in energy and boring.
So, this is the context in which I checked my blog statistics this afternoon, to find they'd shot up to staggering new heights. Of course, the first question is: why? Not for one unrealistic moment do I kid myself that my writing has acquired new depths of insight, is more interesting, makes more people laugh ( sigh, yawn, vomit). It must be something that Google is doing to promote me. Maybe many other bloggers are discovering the same thing. Or perhaps the system has gone pear-shaped.
Anyway, that's more than enough of such sickening narcissism, if that's the right word. I must get back to work.
Bemusedly yours
Jane
I love that you get communiqués. I wish I got communiqués. They're so fashionable.
ReplyDeleteI sympathise on the post-front. If you buy books from Amazon, however, technically you're reading "the post" for the time it takes to complete them. (OK, it's a long shot, but I tried).
(NB I read your blog but sometimes don't comment. I believe it's called lurking, though I call it can't-be-arsed-to-log-in syndrome).
Thanks MJ Nicholls. I read you too but you're often too erudite for me to conjure up a response.
ReplyDelete