Death of the Blog?

While the tenor of Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites like Twitter did not surprise me, I am somewhat saddened by the confirmation of society’s decreasing ability/desire to read for meaning (see Blankenship’s Skimming for the Good Stuff post). While I have always thought of blogging as a little self-indulgent (after all, who could possibly be interested in my thoughts all that much?), the self-indulgence factor is no different for Facebook or Twitter—and I have accounts for both. Who is really that interested in my hemorrhaging liberal politics or the size of the huge egg one of my chickens laid (both real posts as of 2/21). I resisted Facebook for a long time and did not join until Summer 2009. A group of my girlfriends get together for monthly dinners and I felt very out-of-the-loop because they all seemed to know what was going on with each other because of Facebook. I finally caved and while I do not see them any more because of Facebook, I feel more connected to them—especially during the school year when I see practically no friends from September to May. Sometimes, I wish some of them did blog. I would have a deeper understanding of what is going on with them than I do through Facebook. To me, Facebook often feels like the electronic version of running into someone at the grocery store—you exchange pleasantries and it’s safe because you’re not going to go into anything heavy in the frozen veggies isle.

Certainly, teens have plenty to say/muse about and the decrease of blogging indicates they are limiting themselves to the space provided by Facebook and Twitter. While a good writer can be incredibly pithy in 140 characters, Twitter is often about just that—being pithy and Twitter is the ultimate skim.

And don't think the irony of being able to share this post on Facebook or Twitter is at all lost...