The state of blogging
Is blogging becoming a lost art?
Following on from my last post, and the assertions that Facebook is killing the open web, I started writing a post asking what we actually mean when we talk about blogs.
We think we know the answer, in fact we're certain we do. Aren't we?
This took me to Feedly, my RSS reader of choice, to examine and sanitise my subscriptions. Admittedly, it's been a while since I last did this properly but what I discovered shocked me.
So many of those whose feeds I had subscribed to, including from a number who used to be considered blogging stalwarts, are no longer updated, in some cases haven't been for years.
Individual feeds terminated with post titles such as "This Blog is Dead" or littered with scraps and remnants where the author tried to pivot but stopped publishing shortly after.
No explanation, no sign off, just dead air.
I went from over 200 subscriptions to just 51 with only around 20 of those being what you could call a blog in the true sense of the word, maybe less.
So what is a blog?
Do a Google search and you'll be given the following definition:
a regularly updated website or web page, typically one run by an individual or small group, that is written in an informal or conversational style.
The Wikipedia page for "Blog" extends this with:
consisting of discrete entries ("posts") typically displayed in reverse chronological order
Many sites that used to call themselves blogs, and may have actually started out as blogs, became media organisations or news portals written by an ever expanding staff. We are under no illusions that these can still be called blogs, they haven't been for a long time.
So what is it that really makes something a blog?
I would argue that a true blog is personal, individual, a voice.
A blog should be the unfettered thoughts and opinions of its author, singular, not even a small group. An opportunity for that individual to share their ideas with the world.
Blogs are a relationship with their readers whether that is two, two thousand or two million.
Personal
The written web has largely lost the personal touch; the informality which made blogs so special has been replaced by social media.
Blogs were supposed to be the simple way for individuals to publish to the web but status updates usurped them - for many they did away with the need completely.
Those left publishing to their Content Management Systems were left fighting for scant attention and page views while the neo-socialites traded privacy for simplicity in a race to the bottom.
A no brainier.
After the rise and fall of the six-figure blogger people still wanted to get paid to write. News became endlessly recycled, broken down into ever smaller bite-sized chunks; the "bloggers" paid by the post while the extra page views ensure the ad money keeps flowing.
No one, it seems, has time for the personal touch unless it's in less than 140 characters.
And why should they? No one reads any more.
In September last year I wrote that a lot of the blogs I historically followed had shut down or just stopped being updated. People didn’t appear to be writing any more – at least not on their own sites. We are constantly told there are millions of blogs out there but our experiences often imply that the numbers and reality don’t always tally. But, more recently, I think the problem is not that people aren’t blogging, but finding those that are. Recovery Blogging seemed to die back for a while but, as I wrote more recently, getting involved with the Micro.blog and, now, #indieweb communities has meant finding people who are, again, enthusiastic about their own sites. As a result I have been gradually re-populating my RSS reader with good, old-fashioned personal blogs. But I still want more! One of my hopes for Micro.blog was that it might encourage more people to write in long form once they got used to self-hosting their microposts. Since the launch to Kickstarter backers I have, indeed, seen a number state it has prompted them to return to their sites with more vigor and become re-engaged with what they are, or could be, doing. This is fantastic, but more needs to be done. A lot more. Discovery The biggest issue, as with so many other areas online, is of discovery. I’m not so sure that the blog rolls, directories and blogging networks of yesteryear, however, are the right solutions to the problem. We need to get better at both sharing and advertising blogs, those of others and our own. We need to reclaim the conversation from social media by using our own sites to reply and comment – this is where elements of the indieweb come into their own. But, most importantly we need to keep reading and writing, engaging with each other via our blogs to, at least, enable organic discovery.
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