Return Of The Blogosphere

A new article for the new year, this one from the Verge about bringing back personal blogging. How could I NOT comment on this one!? The idea is simple: since social media has devolved in recent years, proving to be less than ideal, and since people remain social, then the collective cyber culture should once again embrace the benefits of blogging. To that, yes. A resounding one indeed.

“In the beginning, there were blogs, and they were the original social web. We built community. We found our people. We wrote personally. We wrote frequently. We self-policed, and we linked to each other so that newbies could discover new and good blogs. I want to go back there.” — Monique Judge

Those of us who were online “back in the day” remember blogging in its heyday and can thus return to it with ready understanding while also being fueled by nostalgia. It’d be like going home.

But what about “digital natives” from Gen Z who never experienced life before Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat? I think their image/video-centric online nature would find text-based blogging too much to tackle. They might even wonder how one can feasibly type a 500-word post via smartphone keyboard (spoiler alert: use a laptop keyboard).

Despite potential friction between old-school blogging and the up-and-coming generation of web surfers, I have high hopes for a return of the blogosphere and think it’s worth promoting. If traditional bloggers like myself want to help a new wave of bloggers find their footing, maybe we simply inundate the web with blog posts about blogging and its benefits, causing such topics to rise in the ranks of Google searches.

For some, blogging never really went away. Instead, it simply became forgotten, neglected, or ignored as the attention of many was distracted by the shiny new social media networks, which admittedly did make posting stuff online easier and quicker than ever. You might recall that Twitter, at first, was labeled as a “micro-blogging” service.

Photo by Antoni Shkraba from Pexels

Side note: though I’ve used different blogging platforms over the years and have also had several different social media services, there’s one site I never joined: Tumblr. I mention it because, unlike the defunct other social media places, Tumblr seems to have retained most of its features and appeal over time, despite some changes. It might be worth promoting.

Bonus note: Blogger began in 1999 and — get this — still exists today! I’m blogging on it right now.

If Gen. Z finds blogging too archaic, they might instead find Tumblr more accessible.

In any case, I’m all for blogging and the blogosphere. And if enough new young people flock to it, blogging might benefit, evolving for the better with a renaissance.

Do you think blogging stands a chance of seeing a second golden age?

Update 1-23-23

Here's a relevant quote from Manton Reece of micro.blog:

"People were pulled away from blogging, drawn to social networks that were faster to post to and easier to interact with friends. It’s our job to pull them back to blogs by bringing the best parts of old-school blogging and modern social networks together."