Is Blogging Going To Die?


Courtesy of gregsshitlist.org

By now you would have read numerous articles proclaiming the death of the blog.  Like this, this, this, this and this.

Friends are also telling me that nobody blogs anymore. Some of their sound bites goes like this:

"Blogs are dumb. They're long, boring, and clumsy to read on smartphones."

"People aren't reading these days. They're scanning information in bite-sized pieces."

"Everybody is on Facebook. That's where you need to be."

"The era of blogs is over. We're now living in a world of mobile apps on Android and iOS platforms."

Admittedly, I do feel a little stupid at times. After all, it isn't easy churning out blog post after blog post every 2 to 3 days, come hell or highwater.

For sure blogs aren't as powerful a platform for influence as they used to be. Compared to social networks like Facebook, Twitter, and Google +, blogs are a little "old school" in how they handle discussions.

Comments are not that visible on blogs. Responses often lag compared to the "real time" action on the newer networks. What's more, you can't "like" a comment on a blog (well at least those on older platforms).

Social networks like Facebook, Flickr, Google + and Instagram are also superior to blogs for photographs. With their ability to push pictures right up front, these networks are a boon for photography enthusiasts (which is like almost.. err.. everybody).

These platforms also allow you to tag, share, and organise your pictures into galleries quickly and efficiently, without having to tangle with the HTML re-sizing, cutting and pasting on blogs.

With so much stacked against blogs, why are people still blogging?

More specifically, why am I still blogging?

For a start, I do enjoy the flexibility of blogs in accommodating a wide range of content in any shape or size. I love the ability to write in a fairly largish empty white space, spilling digital ink on a fairly empty electronic canvas.

I also relish how I can embellish my blog post with photos, videos and other content as and when I like. While other social platforms may excel in inculcating interaction, blogs are unparalleled in providing a richer content experience.

Blogs are also far easier to search and to archive old content. I can locate an old blog post fairly easily based on keywords and dates. Try doing that with a Facebook photo or a tweet that you've shared 2 years ago!

Fortunately for social media old fogeys like me, Google still loves blogs. Of course, it helps that my blog is on Blogger - a Google owned platform - but I believe that other blogging platforms can be just as easily optimised for search engine traffic. While Facebook is the most heavily used social network, it is still a walled garden (albeit a humungously ginormous one).

Finally, and most importantly, my blog is a piece of digital real estate that I can truly call my own - without incurring the hassle or cost of my own website. While LinkedIn does a brilliant job in connecting me to other professionals and in documenting my career achievements over the years, it isn't meant to serve as a content platform. Ditto for Facebook, Twitter, Plurk, Path, Instagram or other social networks.

To answer the question in the headline then, I would say that blogs aren't dead. Not by a long shot. While some of their lustre has been dimmed by newer shinier and brighter objects, I believe that blogs will still be a solid anchor of the social age.

In a way, this mirrors the evolution of media - from printed publications, radio, television, website, blogs, social networks, apps and other content platforms. Each successive generation of content platform will diminish the one before. However, I do not see them sounding the death knell of previous platforms so long as these continue to offer value to consumers in their own unique ways.

Do you agree with me?

PS - I actually blogged about the death of blogging almost 6 years ago following a post by Steve Rubel in 2007. The fact that both of us are still actively blogging shows that we're both wrong!

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