On following many blogs
Something I've been thinking for a while now in the back of my mind is how am I to keep up with all the new blogs that are popping up in my radar. There's also the question of whether this is something I should do or not.
I think I've had a lot of luck in finding a small set of blogs I enjoy. I now have a nice blogroll, and I have around 1 new post a day to read, sometimes less, sometimes more (usually less though). I think this is a nice amount. I imagine in the future I might subscribe to a couple of new ones but not that many (maybe 5?, less than 10), which raises the question of "how many is too many?" and more importantly "what to do when I've reached the 'too many' point?".
I can't think of any of the blogs I follow that I would like to replace with another. After spending some time reading someone's random thoughts you kind of start to appreciate that person! On one hand I'm interested in knowing what's going on in their life, and on the other I feel like I'm somehow supporting them by reading what they write, cheering for them from my own shadowy corner. It's like being friends, but information flows in a single direction. I feel that I would lose this feeling of closeness if I start following many people at once. If allowed to go to the extreme I would probably find myself with a maddening cacophony of noise which would make me stop reading them OR stop appreciating each individual individually. I dread the idea of finding myself with a wordier Twitter.
I've read that some people do follow hundreds of different blogs without any issues, and have the presence of mind to link to many of those posts in their own writing (which gives me the impression that they pay close attention to them). I'm sure these people enjoy following many blogs and publishing answers to other's posts, but I don't think I would like to make my blog mainly about conversing with others. Connecting is wonderful, but I want to leave space for personal exploration. Though maybe I'm just saying this because I tend to lean towards the introverted side of things.
Anyway, there's no real conclusion to any of this. I think the best thing to do here (as in many other areas of life) is to just let the thing flow naturally, and see what happens. I might even surprise myself ending up following lots of different people and not suffering about it!