Last week, my Twitter account got temporarily disabled in some sort of glitch. It was down for only five hours, but I didn’t know that when I tried to log in and couldn’t, so I panicked—and then got embarrassed with myself for how panicked I was. It’s just social media, but without the ability to broadcast my thoughts, I felt like I’d lost a big part of my self expression.
Here on Otaku Journalist, that sounding board effect is even more pronounced. While on Twitter I can broadcast what’s important to me to 5,700 people, this blog gets about 12,000 unique visitors a month. Google says about 2,000 of those people are regular visitors. This is a personal space, but not a private one. Every time I use this space to share something, it’s looked at by way more people than the sum total of my family and friends combined.
It’s easy to forget that, with blog comments going the way of the VCR. (This is not a subtle hint to comment; I don’t comment on blogs much anymore either.) When I blog, I don’t think about the thousands of people who will see the post. I don’t envision a particular face. I just sit at my computer, alone, and try to convey whatever I think is important to share. It creates the perception of a platform where I am active, you are passive. I talk, you listen.
But this weekend at Otakon reminded me that this isn’t true at all.
My Otakon:
Person: Hi I’m X
Me: /deer in the headlights/
Person: I’m @X on Twitter
Me: OMG I KNOW YOU
— RG Lauren Custom (@laureninspace) August 14, 2016
These past three days, I talked to so many Otaku Journalist readers. One of you recognized me in the hall, and I want you to know that made my day. Some of you told me that you had one of my books on your Kindle, or were touched by a particular post I’d written lately. That was the me part. The you part was this—I know and follow and fangirl about so many of you! I’m your Twitter contact or your subscriber or I read your blog or attend your convention panels or sent you an email once while I was reporting something or we share a mutual friend. While it would have been a huge ego-boost in itself to have people recognize and praise my work, it was infinitely more rewarding to realize that the people doing the praising were people I admire.
It’s not so simple as the blogger being the creator, and the reader being the audience. And it’s way better than if that were the case. You’re an Otaku Journalist reader second. And first, you’re somebody that’s capable of awesome things that inspire me, even if I haven’t met you yet.
I’ve said before that blogging changed my life. There is an article about this, and I didn’t even write it. It’s not simply the act of writing online that changed things for the better, it’s that it gave me a place to be seen and heard by people like you. It’s given this awkward introvert a place to network and reach opportunities I wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. And, I realized, it’s given me an in for going up to people I admire at places like Otakon to approach them as an equal.
The very fact of anime being created half a world away means that American fans will always be people who know how to take the initiative—to form clubs and conventions and fan projects. While I’ve been working on my blog and my books and, most recently, the Gunpla database, you’ve been building cool stuff in parallel. It’s reminded me that blogging isn’t a platform; it’s a way for me to participate in a conversation that’s been going on since before this blog began.
Please use the comments to shamelessly promote a fan project you’re working on. I’d love to plug it in this week’s Otaku Links. I’m pretty sure I’ll already have heard of, or perhaps already be a fan of, whatever you post. We’re all influencers, we’re all fans. This is a two way street.
9 Comments.
Without a doubt, it’s always a bit awkward whenever I see meet someone at a con that knows me from Twitter, or whenever I have to introduce myself to someone by way of my blog, but as I keep doing it it’s kind of become sort of funny or even endearing. I’m the same as you, Lauren, when I see whatever I do on my blog as simply me writing about something, but not really thinking about the people that actually read it. I see the numbers in terms of page visits, but that’s all they are to me: Numbers.
It’s when I get a rare comment praising a review, or thanking me for talking about a subject, or even seeing someone in person & having that person tell me that I’m the reason why they know about a certain anime that I just get taken back. It reminds me that there are actual people “on the other side” that are actually reading my material, and often it just feels great. Finally meeting you at Otakon was really cool, & may you always wear red in order to move three times as fast.
@georgehorvath:disqus Great meeting you, too. Thanks for reading OJ all this time.
Yeah, it’s hard to remember we’re not in our own personal bubbles. A lot of people are reading and being affected by our ramblings. Heck, that’s how I have decided to watch SO MUCH anime in the past few years – because blogs gave it a good review.
The aniblogging community has been special to me for the past five and a half years, and some of my reasons are similar to what you’ve mentioned. I got involved online during one of my most difficult teen years. Since then, aniblogging has been a constant—or if not a constant, a background—as I graduated high school, overcame personal struggles, and then graduated college. As I wrote, watched, and grew, I got to interact with and learn from other anime fans. Even if I don’t get to read all your work and I’m still not into Gunpla, I enjoy reading about your projects and hearing how you’ve integrated fandom and career. Your posts and articles (here and elsewhere) have helped expand my perspective—as have the posts of many other anibloggers.
I haven’t been as good about reading others’ blogs in the past couple years. When I do, I haven’t been as good about commenting. I regret that, because I think there’s a lot of value to be found in reading each other’s ideas and adding to the conversation via comments (or Twitter, or wherever). And, as a blogger, I like to know more about the people behind the page views—even if it’s just the username and profile pic. I know I’m not the only one who feels that way.
I have no fan project to promote. I’m just aniblogging and editing, as usual, over at Beneath the Tangles. (In fact, I’m distracted from the column I’m supposed to be writing about Shokugeki for tomorrow—I didn’t plan to write about an ecchi anime for BtT, no matter how much I love the food battles, but it was requested, so back to writing I go!)
@annalynalexis:disqus It’s great to hear from somebody younger than me about growing up with the aniblogging community. When I was in high school, in 2001-2005, blogging was nothing like it is today. I had a Livejournal! By the time I was actually reading aniblogs as they exist today, it was often because I had met the blogger at a con and got their business card. So there was always a bit of admiration and then, when I began blogging myself, the self-doubt and “am i good enough?” questioning.
I don’t put much weight on comments anymore, as you might be able to tell from me responding to this two days after you posted. However, I would NEVER let a tweet go that long without a reply, not because of principle, but because I always see tweets right away. While blog posts, with their longer format, are a good way to get a deep understanding of an aniblogger and their views, twitter is a great way to see their stream of conscience.
Time to go read your piece! Can’t wait to see how you tackle ecchi for BtT.
It’s pretty cool to think about how blogging has evolved over the past 17 years or so (dating from when popular platforms like Blogger opened up blogging for people who can’t code). Livejournal must have died down in popularity by the time I got going in the blogosphere. I kind of associate it with AOL instant messaging and MySpace—internet things that were big back when my parents still monitored my internet activity and my main hobbies were offline. (Wait, is that the way the latest generation of bloggers views Blogger/blogspots?)
My admiration of anibloggers has always started online, since the majority of my fandom experience is online. I had no problem writing on my personal blog—confidence problems came when commenting on others’ posts (“Will they really welcome my comments here, in their personal corner of the internet?”) or when asked to guest post on Beneath the Tangles. The first time TWWK asked me to join BtT, several years ago, I declined, thinking, “Hasn’t he noticed how irregular my blogging is, and how my writing quality is inconsistent?”
But “growing up with the aniblogging community” really describes it, even though I was already seventeen when I started. I gained confidence from blogging and interacting with other bloggers. And even though I’m a veteran blogger now, I still get excited (and a bit self conscious) when you or another blogger I’ve followed for a long time reads my work.
Twitter is one of my favorite ways to follow and interact with anibloggers and other geeks. Wordy interactions aside, when I read a post, enjoy it, but have nothing to say in reply, I often end up on that blogger’s Twitter page, searching for the related Tweet to “like.” ^_^
Oh, wow. Thanks for your interest in my post. You should have seen me speed over to my blog post to check for typos, fussing about how I should have given myself time for a rewrite before posting it. I hope you enjoy(ed) it!
Well you just made my day too. Thanks for the business card.
Thanks for prompting self-promo comments! I’m more of a lurker, but your advice has been making its way into some of my freelance business and organization initiatives and I wanted to say thanks.
AnimeChicago.com is my hobby project of 10 years now, and its evolved into a club of 700+ members on Meetup. Seven of us meet every Sunday to plan 4–7 events a month, including a bi-annual academic symposium. We’re currently inviting members to publish on the website, and we’ve had some amazing articles come from this experiment. It’s been a wild ride!
Now I’m working on a personal advice blog for anime fans. We’ll see where it goes, but it’s worth a shot.
Thanks for creating Otaku Journalist… it’s extremely motivating!
Thanks so much for sharing! A 700+ person club is no small feat, but I’m especially fascinated by the fact that you organized an academic symposium! Check for it in Otaku Links on Friday.
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