Blogs Are Dying But They Shouldn't

They are certainly not dying among the adoptive family community … Blogging continues to grow as each family begins their journey and looks for a way to communicate the stuggles and joys of adopting with a larger community. So I continue to read many more blogs on this specific topic … but probably less of the general purpose, what a specific person thinks kind of blogs.

I do not think they are dying i think they are over-saturated.
Meaning, we have way to many blogs that put out a lot of crap and therefore all the good stuff either gets lost in the shuffle or never appears at all. And that goes for every blog. That could have a lot to do with the idea that we have to produce new and great content all the time. And therefore we are training our “readers” to expect new stuff all the time and so they forget about everything else.

Twitter does not help with this. It is hard to stay in front of people all day, so you have to create create create but there is only so much good creating you can do.

I would disagree with you that they aren’t dying, but it would be fair to say they are evolving. Blogs are beginning to reflect any other type of website and previously static information based websites have gone to more blog based formats.

I do agree with you that this shift was also resulted in an over-saturation. That kind of goes with my post from last week about letting things linger. There’s so much out there that it often becomes easier to ignore it all than dive in, in a helpful way.

Yeah I’ve seen some of the interaction you’ve had with other families who have adopted. Great to see blogs allowing a strong line of communication for all of you.

Over the past 2 years, I have really gotten into reading blogs. There are roughly 10 that I read daily, and maybe 20-30 that I read on a fairly consistent basis. I do think that there are too many blogs saying the same things, leading to over-saturation. Part of the problem is that people create a blog for people to read, rather than for the joy/release/etc that they get by writing. When people don’t read their blog, they stop writing. I think those who have successful blogs (whatever that means) would tell you that, a majority of the time, they are writing to themselves. That honesty and transparency draws others in, generating readers. Long story short, blogging itself isn’t dying, but the number of committed bloggers is probably dwindling – if that even makes sense.

well i’m definitely a fan of the blogging vs the twitter/fb “conversations” …which really aren’t any more meaningful than texting (as is talking on the phone, for example). People may be uninspired by lack of readers…but if your goal is number readers vs quality of ideas, then you’re blogging under the motivation. While I’m aware that I have quite a few people that read my blog – most of them don’t comment b/c of the generation that’s reading my material (aka, not as computer literate) but at the end of day. there’s one person i write for – if no one else…my dad. i know he reads it. and he’ll call me and it’s a great stimulant for conversation. …if people can get to a point where there know who they’re writing for vs how many they’re writing for…then being in the blog community becomes more…worth it. i agree w/ you that twitter and fb don’t carry the depth that a blog can….

agreed, maybe instead of saying they are dying they are shifting to new ways of communicating. Which in my mind is very exciting. It provides a great chance to experiment.

They’re definitely changing….I wouldn’t term them “dying” because I don’t think they are. I’d call it adapting.

Some may look at the frequency of my blog and say it’s dying. My opinion? I don’t want to post something for the sake of posting something, therefore many breaks. I think the lack of doing this is what has led to some pretty substantial saturation.

This might sound like a minor thing, but I prefer blogs to Facebook or Twitter because I can visit a blog (like this one) and in two seconds find a post I liked from six months ago. That wouldn’t be so easy to do on Facebook or Twitter.

The immediacy of social networking is good for communicating in real time but not so good for catching up on things that aren’t happening NOW. This is why I spend way more time in my RSS reader than I do on my news feeds. A blog post like this one is probably worth something in the ballpark of 600 status updates.

P.S. I highly recommend reading Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows if you haven’t yet.

Agreed, I just wonder how this small little space in the blogosphere can compete with those big blogs who have the time/money/expertise to experiment like that.

I always say that good bloggers get readers. But you do not have to be a good writer to get readers. I’m not that good of a writer and in school I was downright awful at it. Blogging fits a good niche for me even though I don’t have too many readers. I do feel compelled to keep up with blogging because people consistently read and comment, but I do usually what is on my heart and mind rather than writing for others.

I love it when my dad says “hey I saw what you wrote last week.” Makes my day

Everyone finds their own groove in blogging. Yours is more sporadic and you will likely have less readers than someone who isn’t as good of a blogger but writes more. However, knowing you, I’d say you probably don’t care much. It works for you.

What’s the book about?

Yeah, it’s more sporadic than I’d like, but when life gets crazy the blog is the first to hit the back burner. My blog is Christian, though…so forgiveness is there.

Tyler:

Keep on blogging. There are millions like me who would rather talk on a cell phone than use it for text messages. I don’t twitter but I roam the Web daily and enjoy blogs like yours. Having a good reader like Opera handle the RSS feeds makes it a pleasure to read multiple blogs.

Regards,

Dave

Tyler, love this post, bro. I too am mourning the decline (that’s an easier word for me to swallow than ‘death’) of blogging.

For all the beauty and good things that postmodernity is bringing to our culture, it seems communicating is one of this movement’s weakest points – whether it be via txt (we can’t even afford vowels anymore!), Twitter, FB, or whatever. And I say that as an avid Twitter user and texter.

But all of this is leading to true writing becoming a lost art. I especially love and resonate with your points #1 and #2 above. They have great ramifications on many areas of culture.

true, and they probably cannot.
You should read this article by Julien Smith, very very good
http://inoveryourhead.net/how-to-survive-the-social-crash/

Great link, thanks Kyle.

I may be wrong, but I think quality writing with helpful, entertaining, inspiring, story-driven and/or artistic content will continue to be read and appreciated.

As someone commented above, changes in blogging feel like an evolution more than an end. Twitter and Facebook serve different purposes than a blog post, and all of them can complement one another.

Hey I always thought my facebook conversations with Ash were meaningful!

(I also checked out her blog too a couple times! I want my partial credit!)

I actually posted once in a message board for musicians (my dad happened to go there a lot). I posted about playing music with my dad- just like some kids play sports with theirs. I posted it after my dad had his heart attack. He emailed me the next day thanking me and telling me he was touched with what I wrote. Talking through email is so cool!!