The Decline of Blogging (See Jane Ponder)

It’s not so much that blogging is dead but that other avenues are much more accessible.  Maybe it’s the fact that our attention spans are getting shorter and shorter; we only have time to catch up on someone’s life if it’s via a casual scroll or swipe.  Long captions?  Forget it.  I need a pun or quick sound byte–and it’d better be way less than 180 characters (no wonder kids today can’t be bothered texting full words…c u 2nite?).  I felt like blogs brought the written word into the digital age and now, they’re dying a slow death.  If we’re truly seeing the demise of the blog, well, we had a good run, didn’t we?!

Alright.  So, what happened to blogging?  I’ve been in this game for six years now; wow, it scares me to type that out.  In some ways, it’s fun to watch my journey.  In other ways, it’s scary to think that blogging is somewhat defunct now.  Snapchat and instagram are king and queen of the prom, but will the way of the online journal ever reemerge?  When I started this blog, it felt like a small community.  It seemed as if everyone knew each other and was rooting for each other.  Link ups, comments, and #FF.  Everyone caught up on blogs over their morning coffee, just wanting to be feel inspired.  Now, it’s a race to create your own brand–a unique identity on a mobile platform.  With millions and millions of people constantly getting thrown information, it’s a race to stay relevant.  I’m shocked at the amount of people I follow on instagram that have thousands of followers; hell, I’m surprised that I have thousands of followers.  We’ve turned into purveyors of information and goods.  Everyone’s got a price and everyone’s selling something.  And hey, I’m just as guilty.

I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again: I don’t know if I’ll ever blog full-time.  I actually look at my blog as a resume addendum of sorts.  Plus, I think I missed that boat.  If I went and built a real and tangible brand, I should’ve done it a couple years ago and struck while the iron was hot.  For now, I question my own future of blogging.  Not because I don’t love it–trust me, if i didn’t love blogging, I wouldn’t do it.  But moreso, what’s in store for this platform?  Will it continue to fade out and die a slow death like Xanga and LiveJournal (RIP)?  Will we laugh at our personal blogs much like today’s teens laugh at our MySpace accounts?  Man, the internet is a weird place–and it also never forgets, so remember that what we put out into cyberspace now will come back to haunt us now.  Perhaps when my grandchildren read this, they’ll laugh about the olden days.  But, I’ll probably still be alive trying to instagram them for all my old-school blogging friends.

So what say you–is it over?  Any hope left for blogs?

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