New Year Greetings, faithful readers. Prior to this post, my last entry here was on 16 November 2022. This 10-week break was the longest in the 10+ years I have blogged here at Gun Culture 2.0 (as well as 4 years blogging at Gun Curious).
I took a break both because I was overwhelmed by personal and family obligations and also because I have been rethinking my online and social media presence.
I was forced to do this reevaluation by my experiences over the years as well as reading Sherry Turkle’s book, Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, and two essays by Jonathan Haidt in The Atlantic last year, “Why the Past 10 Years of Amerian Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid” and “Yes, Social Media Really is Undermining Democracy.”
Turkle, Haidt, and others highlight all that is wrong with our increasingly mediated communication. Although I have tried to embody the motto “Light Over Heat” in my work, I sometimes feel as if I am writing in an echo chamber or speaking into a void.
Additionally, after years of growth, my blog readership peaked and declined, making me wonder if the juice is worth the squeeze.
As this blog post suggests, I have decided that it is.
I have decided to keep blogging here and at Gun Curious for three main reasons. First, I am (perhaps immodestly) proud of the accumulated knowledge I have shared over the years. Second, regardless of the size of my readership, the blogs serve as a personal journal of where my thoughts on guns and gun culture are at any given time. And third, I simply enjoy writing.
These blog posts are also the raw material for my ongoing book projects, Gun Curious, Gun Culture 2.0, and a possible 3rd book on 21st-century gun ownership called Responsible. If you’d like to support me in this work, please share my work or consider a financial contribution to help offset the costs of this work.
Thank you!
Gun Culture 2.0 
Hello. I’m glad you’re still doing this. Take a look at Substack sometime. It’s a great platform for riders.
Mark McNease
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Mark. I appreciate this encouragement. I see a lot of people on or moving to Substack. I need to study the value added since I’m so comfortable blogging in WordPress. Stay tuned!
LikeLike
Glad you are keeping the two blogs up, David. These seem particularly relevant to the whole discussion of guns. Oh, and just saw that annual coffee charge on our credit card (hint to others reading this). Had my wife puzzled till I explained it.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks, Khal. You’re certainly the most engaged reader I have had over these many years, and I’ll look forward to delivering one of the first non-family copies of my gun culture book to you. Would love to do it in person in New Mexico!
LikeLike
Thanks for sharing, David!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment, buddy!
LikeLike
Glad you’re back and keeping the blog. I still reference articles on your site in conversations with those that are inquisitive about guns but haven’t made up their mind. One might even call them… “guncurious”😉
LikeLiked by 2 people
I appreciate this word of support and encouragement, especially from someone who is doing the work like you are.
LikeLike
I’m glad to hear you’re not disappearing from these spaces. Your output has been useful in so many ways!
As a “for what it’s worth,” for posts that are duplicated here and at Gun Curious, I will usually open and read only one of them (and outright delete the other email without reading), so folks doing that could be affecting the data on readership. I had actually debated unsubscribing to one or the other, but have kept both for situations where there’s no overlap (or the commentary is different).
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for your note – you’re one of the readers who have been with me a long time and I appreciate that.
My goal in starting Gun Curious was to try to reach a different audience than Gun Culture 2.0, though I’m not sure how successful that has been since I know a lot of readers are like you and subscribe to both. I do try to differentiate the material, but some things seem targeted to both of the audiences in my head.
Even adding the two blog readerships together I am still short of my earlier peaks. I think people are shifting to other venues and I may also not be bringing the value added that I used to. Have to be realistic about that.
LikeLiked by 1 person
When I had hundreds of followers, I averaged one post per week. Now that I have but a handful of followers, it’s hard to find the motivation to write. But I feel that operating a small blog is like publishing Samizdat — the distribution might be limited, but they can have a huge impact on those who do come across them, who in turn can make larger impacts.
Love your stuff, blogs and youtubes, which I share frequently.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Thanks, Matt. Insofar as I started this blog with no readers and no sense that I would ever have readers, the fact that people spend time here is more than I could have hoped for – no matter the number. And, yes, quality over quantity is a good thing!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Excellent –
LikeLiked by 1 person
As a gun rights ideologue and hard-core gun rights absolutist, I have always enjoyed your views on how to engage people who don’t agree with me.
Welcome back!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thanks for this note. I appreciate (and need!) the encouragement. Looking forward to a productive 2023 here.
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Calculus of Decay .
LikeLike
Hi David, please keep going! I reference your work all of the time when discussing guns with people, especially other people-of-color.
LikeLike