A status update on blogging

Image via Kapersky Friends and Fan Club

I still remember being in secondary school when I first heard about the word, “blog”. From what I could tell, it grew into a buzzword among my classmates. During social gatherings of any kind, one would be sure to pop the inevitable question to an unsuspecting party: “So…you got a blog?”

Creating a blog and contributing comments on discussions became the norm, and these were even at one point part of my school assignments at times. Adding links to the blogs of your peers in the sidebar was regarded highly as well-the more links one added and shared, the more “connected” one was perceived to be. Let’s not forget having shoutboxes as well – so that the whole world knows your blog is actually active. In reality, keeping tabs on blogs then was such a tedious affair, which required constant checking and pestering blog authors to update. Nowadays, a simple tweet within 140 characters is all that is needed to tell others about what you’re thinking, doing, etc.  People don’t really have to write so much anymore, but rather restrict their posts or comments to just a word or a few sentences.

Image via nazareneblogs.org 

Whatever happened to their blogs, you ask? Some have been either deleted, while others have been permanently left in stasis for an undetermined period of time. A few blogs changed to other hosting service, where after the initial fury of posts, end up in the “deleted or left in a coma” category.

Perhaps it’s in the initial stages of blogging that bloggers possibly end up overdoing the act of blogging. Forcing a blog post every single day would wind up looking like a chore. Imagine if every daily blog post consisted of nothing but the same hum-drum activity or thoughts. Not only would readers get turned off, I’m pretty sure the blogger himself would end up feeling how boring everything is.

Image via valeriemorrison.net

Blogging also takes time, lots of time. Maybe this is why people have grown increasingly accustomed to newer social media tools which allow them to update their followers on Twitter or friends on Facebook instantly, with the touch of a button. It’s fast, extremely easy to setup within seconds, and after you’re done, the apps will do the work for you automatically. For example, instead of typing words, they can just tap the foursquare application on their smartphones to let their friends know where they are.  Linking this to their Twitter accounts and Facebook, they are all set to start spamming each others’ status walls with updates left, right and center.

Image via mylot

Hmm, maybe I’ve got this whole thing all wrong. Blogging isn’t really dead. Maybe it’s just that people have moved on from the inane task of sitting infront a computer, typing stuff and publishing posts. Maybe it’s just that people have advanced the notion of blogging to 3 main platforms: mainly short form on microblogging services, medium form on mesoblogging services, and long form on macroblogging services. Maybe it’s just that we are still communicating information to one another, except that the info comes to you in hyperlinks, twitpics and as a wall post or two on Facebook.

I just miss the good ol’ days of blogging.