The rise and fall of the blog is a heavily discussed topic on the Internet. Many are quick to claim that social media is killing blogs; that blogs are no longer important. But this isn’t the case.
The truth of the matter is that blogs have done far more harm to themselves than anything Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr, or any other social media site could have ever done. And, if anything, these sites provide more exposure and opportunities for bloggers.
Destruction From Within
But all that doesn’t take away from the fact that blog growth has been slowing.
There are also quite a few theories as to why this has happened, and here are the most notable:
- Bad economy
- Falling advertising revenues
- Rise of social media
- Too much spam
- Information overload
- Lack of interest
- Lack of creativity and innovation
- Lack of personality
Some of those might be true. All of those might be true. And, then again, none of those might be true. But, regardless of the reasoning, it is clear that the blogosphere isn’t quite what it once was.
Part of the issue is that many blogs are no longer worth visiting. The reason for this is because a majority of the blogosphere contains nothing more than information that is rehashed over and over and over again. If you’ve read a same story on one blog, is it necessary to read it on another, even if there is a unique opinion to both? Furthermore, most new blogs fail to bring anything new and unique to the table.
Also, the competition in the blogosphere is fierce.
The ones who create truly unique and powerful content are the ones capturing the attention of readers. That used to be what was most important to getting popular within the blogosphere. But many people no longer have the drive to sort through the constant flow of information that they are bombarded with.
It’s No Longer About The Blog
With the growth of the blogosphere, each blog matters less while each conversation as a whole matters more.
So it is all about sorting through that conversation to find the ones that talk about it the best. It would also makes sense that, with the emphasis being quickly taken away from search engines, social media is the best platform to discuss these conversations.
It is interesting to note, however, that when blogs first took off in popularity, it was people who praised blogs because they gave authors a voice and a personality that traditional media couldn’t convey — instead of reading a news article in the paper with just the facts, we were given true expressions from the writer, and through that writing, we, the readers, could make a better connection.
Yet somewhere along the line it is clear that blogs became more like traditional media, with the focus being on the content instead of it being on the author. Sadly, even personal blogs these days are filled with contents that serve not to document the thoughts of the author, but, instead, to a particular subject like marketing or technology.
This is taking the personality away from blogs, and this is what has done the most harm, and it was only a matter of time before something came along to restore the personality of the individual.
Then came along Twitter.
Twitter helped us realize something: it is about the person behind the blog — and not the blog itself — that truly matters. It has provided each individual with a medium to present their true personality while allowing people to connect with each other more easily than blogs ever allowed.
Twitter is, once again, the great equalizer — we are witnessing history repeating itself.
Thus, all these conversations about blogs versus social media is irrelevant. It is about blogs versus personality. That is what the true argument has always been. Media has always changed for the better — to enable more personality, because personality will always win. It is part of what makes the Internet so great.
The Future
So will there be blogs in the future? The answer is simple: absolutely! There is no doubt that there will be blogs for as long as there will be a human being on this planet.
Furthermore, this whole thing about blogs are dying and social media will kill blogs is silly.
Sure, blogs might be impacted financially, but there will always be ways to generate money through online media. The platform might change. The type of media might change. The methods used might change. But there will always be ways.
Oh, and if you are asking yourself what will kill Twitter in the future, it should be obvious: it will be the platform that transforms conversations to being personal again (as it is obvious that Twitter is quickly being abused as a marketing tool). That is what people truly desire — they want to be connected on a personal level.
In the end, connections are what truly matters.
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