State of the Blog, Awareness of the Outside World, Taking a Poll on a New Feature

Blogging About Blogging

Awareness of the outside world. Meta.
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Since the middle of last month I have been starting my posts with a few words that touch on the world at large, either related to the post, or the events of the day.

I’m torn about this feature and gathering opinions.

Con – Not On Brand
Con 1 – Hollandaise in the cupcake. Years ago, I posited my Cupcake Theory. When you bite into a cupcake, you expect it to taste like a cupcake. I still feel this way. No one is coming here for insightful analysis of the latest news cycle. If I have a gift to give the Internet, it is to be witty and amusing. The outside world is rarely either one. [Speaking Out]

Con 2 – Don’t add to the noise. The are a gracious plenty of places that will inform and infuriate.

Con 3 – Ick. Some days, I hate it. I do NOT want to think about what is going on in the world.

Pro – Being Real
Pro 1 – Suck it up, Buttercup. On a personal level, the feature is good for me. It reminds me, to paraphrase the man on the tarmac, that problems of two little horses don’t amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world.

Pro 2 – Silence is complicity. [Other Voices]

Pro 3 – Be wary of the ivory tower. The ability to shut out the world is an addictive privilege. Stay engaged.

My Solution
I’ve have tried to thread my way between these two opposing forces by make the text obvious but avoidable. I make the segment short, separate it spatially, and put it in italics. The goal is to clearly delineate the Awareness section from the main post, thereby making it easy to skip, should you so desire. If you are interested, here is. If you are not interested, blog continues below.

Verdict
How do you, as a reader, feel about this?

Result 1 – Everyone hates the new feature with a grand and fiery passion. On one hand, I’m not going to stop. See above re benefit to self, complicity, and engagement. On the other hand, I want to be responsive to people kind enough to visit. I can make the segment as small as possible, keeping it to a link or a line.

Result 2 – You like it or You don’t mind it or You hate it but can ignore it. I shall chug along.

State of the Blog [Archives]

Update. Making an internal rule to skip this for Guest Posts or fiction posts. GPosters don’t have a say in what outside world statements I make. Therefore, it would be unfair to tie them to it. Fiction is about creating consistent alternate world. Awareness statements would be distracting. Still plenty of other days. Also, have been posting word-related on Saturdays and image-related on Sundays. May 2021.

Stay safe. Stay sane,
Katherine Walcott