What the hell happened to blogs? To my blogging?

Despite being in demand for blogs and other things, I'm feeling a bit worn out. And it's not just the work. I love the work.

I'm lucky because most of the time when I sit down to write, I can. It's like my brain knows that I have a limited amount of time to write and purges when I sit down to the laptop. I feel bad when I hear my professional writing friends who have all day to write and get writer's block. But I'm thankful that the Goddess gifted me with my purging brain.

But I'm also overwhelmed with trying to keep up with reading all the fabu blogs out there. I seriously need to purge my Bloglines subs. I keep hitting clear on the same blogs - sadly some that I've read for years! That's the downfall for being online for so damn long! I have a lot of "old" favorites.

I also just emailed a friend today about being wistful for the days when we just wrote, vented & ranted to each other rather than pitched each other. The days when getting together in person was a cause of celebration and not another date on our monthly calendars. I dunno, I guess I'm becoming a grumpy old blogger who is overwhelmed with all the niche conferences and corporate sponsorship. Again, it's not that I want to be asked...It's just weird.

Example, someone tweeted the other day that some bloggers will be getting help from a certain women's clothing store for us plus-sized gals for Blogher. A store where I'm sometimes too small for, but I still peek in on. I'm freaking speaking at Blogher and I didn't get an offer. But it's not like I want to be a walking billboard either. *sigh* See how that mental gymnastics just went?

Also, when I see people I know who are corporate bloggers/tweeters (aka BigBoxMom or CartoonWorldMom) tweeting about a certain item, I can't help but wonder if they really like it or if they are shilling.

We're at a turning point for blogging and I fear we are losing our soul. Even those of us who aren't shilling all day! It's hard to build a community when we have to wonder if this blogger is trying to make money off of us. It's easy in real life when you know that Gaby is your home cosmetic sales friend. But she isn't also trying to get you to buy a new videogame and at a certain store.

And because I do occassionally do review products here, it's not like I'm totally against it. I just think that we're losing something as a community, blogging not just mom blogging, when we start putting products first.