Well, I succumbed. I signed up for a Yelp account today. I think I may actually like it. I’ve already given 3 reviews and it’s nice that you can review pretty much any place. Love that. I’m not sure how involved I’ll be in the events… but I have been looking to meet new people and make some new friends, so perhaps this will be an avenue for that.
I’m hoping it might get me a little more excited about the Internet again. I’ve been feeling a lack of community excitement, you know? When I started blogging, it was exciting… everyone was getting to know everyone else… exploring new territory, blogging was fresh, blah blah blah. Now it seems as if it’s gotten more about self-promotion, more ‘insta-success’ expectation, everything in a Twitter-sized Pownce-filled Plurk-laden serving. Yet with all of our social networking, I feel like the internet as a community has turned more inward as opposed to reaching out, or at least, that’s how it seems. With the advent of RSS feeds, people rarely comment anymore, where in the beginning, that’s how people got to know each other and found new blogs to read, not by lurking via Google Reader. And I’ll admit, I’m guilty of this as well. Life is busy and feeds make it easier. Times change…
I’m kind of in this wedge where I don’t have children, so I don’t fall into the mommyblogger groups and communities of which there seem to be so many of these days and where so many women my age tend to hang out. Many of the bloggers I knew that used to run with the “single crowd” have now gotten married and/or had babies. I got older, they got older and that’s where they are in their lives. That’s a good thing and I’m happy they have a place to do their mom thing… not only for them, but for Kathy and because it pays my bills! You go moms, get down with your bad selves. 
But my other interests, like design and stuff, well… I never see or talk to many of my colleagues until it’s SXSW time, for the most part. We have a few colleagues that we know and love, but mostly because we’ve invested time in those relationships. With others there can sometimes be an ever-so-slight feeling of competition. I think that prevents me from developing stronger friendships, regardless of how much I like the person, which is kind of disappointing. And that’s not necessarily on them; we’ve been stung by that bee before and I’m officially allergic to drama.
I feel like I don’t really have a niche right now and I could stand to explore new things and other interests. I’m hoping Yelp will be a nice way to get to know new people and new businesses in my area, whether or not anything ever comes from it.
If you’re a Yelper and want to add me to your friends list, please feel free… especially if you’re in San Diego!
first of all: if you use netvibes instead of google reader you can see the sites in their actual look [in your reader] and comment [which is what i’m doing right now] – also, it’s a lot prettier, so you should check it out
http://www.netvibes.com/puttytat
and we have something like yelp here in germany as well. it’s called golocal.de and i signed up a while ago and think it’s great. i hope it’ll help get your excitement for the blogging world back …
@kim: thanks! I hope so, too. Don’t get me wrong, I love blogging and have to in order to do my job, but there’s an ebb and flow. I’m feelin’ the ebb right now. haha! But i’m already excited about Yelp, so even though I’m late to the party, I’m sure i’ll get something out of it.
believe me, i know what you’re talking about when it comes to weddings and babies all over the place around you. only that five of my “real life friends” had babies in the last fourteen months and three are pregnant right now [one for the second time] … me? not so much and probably not any time soon…
yelp is the bomb. i love my yelper friends too.
I’m glad I’m not the only one feeling a lack of excitement with the internet lately. I don’t know why I am feeling that way. I am constantly looking for new myspace profile designs and trying to tweak designs for my blog – those things I enjoy doing.
I find myself signing up for accounts on various services for (pathetic I know) the sole reason of ensuring that I get my user name of sogroovynow. I might not investigate the actual service for several months, but I get the name. LOL
It has changed – the whole blogging thing that is. I’ve been writing since 2003 and have switched domains once, but yes, at first, people were commenting, relating, advising… I started blogging because I was in a bad place and just wanted to get my feelings out there and it was so nice to find other people struggling with a lot of the same issues.
Here’s to hoping you’ll get over the funk.
I love Yelp! I go in spurts with my reviews, but seeing as how I”m broke, not heading out much. It’s given me a great place to tell everyone about awesome stores and restaurants, something I love doing.
I just recently started reviewing places I visit when I’m in the San Diego area but most of mine are in the Temecula/Murrieta area.
Looking forward to reading what you have to say.
I still visit the blogs I like the old fashioned way. But yeah, a lot of the sense of community is gone.