In the era of Facebook, Twitter, SMS, and character limits on messages, I can’t help but feel that blogging has irreversibly shifted its role online.
Over the past few years of having this space to myself, dozens of people have came to or wrote me for advice on how to start a blog or to let me know I was their motivation for starting their own. Some people wanted to put ads on their blog to generate revenue, some wanted to break into professional journalism by creating a buzz around their work, and some just wanted to simply know the logistics of it all – how to add pictures, secure a domain, etc.
When I look at the idea of blogging, I have to start at the beginning. Since recorded history, all writers have experimented with different forms that reflect the notion of human thought. As blogging becomes its own literary form (and it certainly is), we must acknowledge that this new form has enabled writers to express themselves in ways never seen before in the history of writing.
The word blog is taken from two words- web and log. It is a log of thoughts and writing posted openly on the web to anyone on Earth with an internet connection. The ability to instantly self-publish to a global audience has only been technologically possible for the mainstream for the last decade. Whereas writers of centuries past worked on short stories, poems, plays, and other forms for sometimes years apiece. Blogging is the spontaneous expression of instant thought (With more than 140 characters).
Unlike most print journalism, blogs give voice to everyone, and the consequences and benefits of that are still being played out.
Fifteen months ago I wrote an entry called, “A Blog is a Blog is a Blog” dismissing the self-righteousness of blogging. I have been asked to write for a several publications or allow others to publish some of my better entries and have declined every time. When I want to be a professional writer, I’ll make it known.
I blog because it allows me to sit and think for a few minutes about an idea. It keeps my writing constantly improving and it allows for reflection on ideas that I may change my mind on. In its simplest essence, maintaining this blog makes me a more disciplined and efficient human. I haven’t made any money off of this blog (Except for a shameful 3-week AdWords campaign that I regret) and am left with limited time to update with enough regularity to ever become a truly followed site (Mark Cuban explains well in a post, “Who cares what people write?”)
There were years of this blog where I would find a particularly clever YouTube clip and make it its own post. That is just where the natural stage of blogging evolution was at the time. Now for their quick shits and giggles, one can turn to Twitter or Facebook to share those type of things online. Blogging has become, dare I say it, more refined- and more professional. Journalism is a dying art as the best writers begin to write books, maintain their own valuable blog, and write occasional op-pieces for big papers. Blogs are in a transitional phase- somewhere between earning mainstream credibility and still being publicity whores.
Blogs also have other upsides over other social media. They are more versatile, powerful, SEO valuable, and professional than other social media. They give people further web identity and can expand corporate brand exposure with proper viral techniques. But again, as the ebb and flow of social media moves through its peaks and valleys of change, where is the place for blogs in the future?
And that leaves us back to the question, why even blog?
With Twitter now an undeniable pulse on the real time conversation of the entire world, it is simply unwise to dismiss the site as a fad vanity application. Twitter, or at least the technology behind real time conversation and search, is not going anywhere (Good TIME article on this subject) and Google should be worried (Will O’Brien explains why).
While I don’t intend to stop blogging, I do think I am going to start actually using my Twitter account (Which you can find here) for updates in the near future.
As Mark Cuban writes in another post, “Tweets are the blog posts you thought about writing, but didn’t feel they had enough substance.” And again, “The beauty of twitter is its simplicity. It works perfectly and quickly on a phone. Translated, its the ultimate time waster for the 30 plus generation. You are never bored when you have a phone and twitter, no matter where you are. Thats the key to its success.”
So while blogging will have its place on the internet and in my life, I can’t deny the powerful presence that Twitter has brought to the world. Without Twitter (and inherently the internet as a whole), the Western World would be cut off from the history in Iran unfolding before our eyes.
I love blogging and good blogs do have value and should be recognized as so, but they’re static- they’re analog players in a digital world.
Follow me on Twitter if you’d like. I think I’ll be able to bring you some value.
