I proudly announced to my dance class today that I had attended the BlogHer Conference over the week-end--800 women bloggers, a beautiful thing to see, etc., etc., still full of enthusiasm for what I had just experienced.
There was a group wrinkled brow and comments:
"I don't know. I don't get the blogging thing."
" I feel like I'm wasting my time when I sit at the computer and read all that stuff."
"A real time-sink."
These are women mostly in their 40s and 50s, who consider themselves with-it. Otherwise, they wouldn't be learning this new dance/exercise technique called NIA. In fact, someone, ironically, actually brought up this "willingness to take risks" and referenced an article they'd read in a magazine about risk-taking (it was in Men's Health!) and proceeded to say how we're all women ready to take risks (a good thing, judging from the directional shaking of heads around the room). They were talking about NIA, not blogging.
"How many of you have read a blog?" I asked. Everyone shoook their heads in the other direction, as in 'No."
"Wow!" was all I could say. Do they think they're just personal journals and boring diaries? I offered to make a list of some good ones so they could taste a pu-pu platter of blogs. We'll see what happens.
CEOs are apparently unaware of blogging, too. As the NY Times pointed out in "All the Internet's a Stage. Why Don't CEOs Use It?" this past week-end. They mentioned Jonathan Schwartz at Sun Microsystems as one of the only CEOs who blogs and who apparently values open communication. Although not mentioned in this article, GM's CEO is another. That's two. TWO??? I note that most CEOs are also in their 40s and 50s. Is this an age thing? Uh-oh. And the train is definitely leaving the station.
This reminds me of CEOs and other executives in the 80s who thought that the computer was only for secretaries and wouldn't be caught dead with one in their offices. We all know what happened to those guys (and they were all guys then).
Don't they realize that the pace of blogging is moving far faster than other technologies and comunication techniques before it? At least geometrically. Incredible that so many leaders are so far behind. I'm wondering: what's happening in business schools re: blogging? I think Debbie Weil will be teaching somewhere big soon.
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My husband was in the "why would you do that?" camp as far as blogs go, but he recently admitted that he'd read a... blog. (gasp!) He's still not a regular reader of them (aside from techie-type ones that he denies are blogs :), but even he says, "it's just a matter of time before everyone's reading blogs." Hope the women in your class find a few they like and get hooked!
I'm so glad I met you before I left San Jose -- it was one of the highlights of the whole trip!
Lori (http://www.avocado8.com/)
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