Ok, I’ll try to keep this short and sweet. Although I’ll probably fail… It has been nearly 5 years since I’ve updated the blog. I feel we are at an cross roads of sorts. Or maybe we already blew through the stop sign and never even noticed the option to turn? The internet is changing. Long gone is the internet of the early 2000s. A place where people shared ideas and creations. A place where a personal website or blog with good content could rise to the top and the little shop busting their butts could would be recognized. The internet was a great equalizer. For a time money mattered less and content and heart nearly ruled. We have turned towards “social media” for our entertainment, info and inspiration. I watched the decline of organic reach to those I interacted with on Facebook around the time that Facebook rolled out their Business “Pages”. A place where they take away the bulk of your natural supporters and your posts natural reach so that they can sell it back to you. The apps main feed is so manipulated that you can never “catch up” on missed posts and often see post from only the same handful of people even though you “follow” many more. When I discovered Instagram it was with much relief! But I knew as soon as Facebook bought it I would watch history repeat. Enter the age of InstaFace… And where do we go next? Will history just repeat there again?
I feel we are in a very strange time. The internet is or has killed most magazines. Blogs are dead and a few internet forums persist. Where are we going? To a world where we are subject primarily to paid content? Where is the grass roots bike culture we came up in? We all know it’s still in the oddball low down chopper shows, In our garages when you help a brother out with a new build/mod, or the gift of a part. It’s on those long backroad rides, when you forgot your rain gear or overcome a break down with some crazy zip tie fix that never should have gotten you home. You used to be able to feel it online. Now there are so many “life style” profiles reposting content that we often loose track of who’s who and if it was real or just a fabricated photo shoot.
Due to all of this and my uncertainty about what comes next. I am going to try to be more diligent about sharing the things that I would with my social media here in the blog. Will many see it? Likely not. But it will not be filtered and fed back to you. And it will be here as long as my site is up. So the least I can do is share to it when I make other social media posts.
As for you. I suggest we all support the places that support our culture online. If you have a blog maybe think about posting to it when you post your bike content on social media. Support the online forums we have left. The Jockey Journal is still out there and The Chop Cult Forum is cooler than ever and facilitated by people in our world who care about it. One positive thing this era has brought is the rise of the podcast. We do have some amazing grass roots podcast available to us. If you’ve not heard any of them you should have a look and support them. Maybe we can hold on to the little bit we have left strengthen it and grow something new. But no matter what don’t stop doing what is in your heart and chop on, blog on, forum on!
Now back to our regularly scheduled posts of a couple photos and few short sentences. Thanks for your ear…
