Blogging / Journalling R.I.P.

[scott]

When I started my online journal, it was just called an online journal, or sometimes online diary. Then it became blogging. Then it seemed like everyone was doing it. These days though, I don't know, the personal blog - meaning someone writing about herself with no product to sell, no celebrity, no strict themes (i.e. no gaming blogs, tech blogs, celebrity blogs, etc), no corporate backing - seems more of a rarity. Maybe it's just because the group I "grew up with" on the net has mostly moved past it or stopped writing. It just seems like there's less to read and less reading, as well. People want information, not TMI these days. Maybe it's a younger person thing. I don't know.

Does anyone else get the impression that blogging is passe again, or am I just looking in the wrong places?

[yipeeladybug]

I think Facebook makes it easy to update without having to write a blog. Seems to me times get busier the older you get, and Facebook is therefore perfect for those who want to blog but don't have time to write.

I still blog but I've had to restrict it to friends so that not too much personal information gets out there.

I think blogging's popularity is done for good.

[Will]

I think it's partly to do with "blogging" being mainstream and everyone seems to be doing it.

The other being time constraints. Twitter is another good service where you can post little updates rather than a full blog posts, so works for those little on time.

Probably new distractions (such as facebook) get in the way of things as well.

Maybe something new will come along to re-kickstart blogging once again. I'm sure those who once wrote extensively are itching for the opp to do so once more.

I think there's still a big future for blogging communities, where the communities can sort of lock down what can be seen by those outside of the community of friends etc.

[Chi]

I think it also has to do with the threat of bloggers getting fired by their workers for being too personal. The quick and easy fixes provided by Facebook status updates and Twitter let people get to directly to the point...we don't utilize or bother to develop attention spans anymore...

[Mighty Asian Thunder]

I totally concur with this. I have a lot of coworkers from my main office and also from the corporate HQ that know of my blog, before I added them as friends in facebook, or anything I had to go through and clean up a shit load of stuff. Did not need them finding out about me beating off in the office on the weekends or how much i nearly orgasmed when I took a shit on the 2nd floor and did not flush.

[Mighty Asian Thunder]

I know what you say BCE, hell even I am doing that sort of with the fact that I write a corporate blog now. I have seen an evolution in the fact that there are so many manners in which to try to beat the system (Google) to get page ranks through social media sites like Facebook, twitter and a number of other things. I have tried to day a day to day account on my personal blog, but also maintaining my corporate blog as its own entity, but there will be one way cross over from my personal to the corporate.

People have found, especially marketing folks, that blogging is a very essential tool in regards to getting specific types of messaging out. You will always have a core group of people that do it just for themselves, I mean in all honesty, wtf is going to care that I went to Olive Garden a week after Molly's birthday to have her birthday lunch there? Only the people that you have developed a relationship with over time, your "audience."

I still go to a lot of blogs from the "original" folks and still enjoy reading their stuff on a semi regular basis. Is it dead, or dying? I do not think so, is it harder to find someone that you connect with, most definitely. I do think that with the proliferation of RSS feeds it makes it easier to go to one place and see if someone has made a posting as opposed to going to bookmarks and seeing if someone made an entry makes things easier, but as is with anything, the more popular something gets, the more schlock is around to swim through before you can find a gem.

I mean right now, if I make a post in my blog it updates my twitter which inturn updates my facebook status, so if I make an entry it is seen by people that are "my friends" and 9 times out of 10 it is me posting up something about what is going on, or my rants about how this country is going to shit and all that good stuff.

[scott]

I still don't know how to use or even access an RSS feed.

?

[yipeeladybug]

same here.

[Jessica]

I didn't either until I opened up Google Reader - it's like a one-stop shop for all your bookmarks. I get updates / feeds on your journal / drawings on there, in addition to all the other blogs, cooking websites, knitting magazines, etc.

All I have to do when I see a web page I like is go and subscribe to it in Google Reader, or through the rss "button" or widget that many people have set up (or their blog provider has set up).

RSS feed replaces a lot of the "send email when this is updated" links.

[yipeeladybug]

RSS feed replaces a lot of the "send email when this is updated" links.

I don't do that either. I must be in the Dark Ages. :)

[Anna]

There was a point when everyone owned a blog. Some have stayed, some have left, some have gone the "professional blogging" route. And because of its popularity, people have become more careful about getting too personal in public space. You have students being asked to get out of class because of one line about the prof (I read my old prof's entry about it HAHA). Or people getting fired, etc. I myself get very conscious whenever a friend alludes to an entry of mine when I know I never gave that person my URL.

But the thing is, it really isn't as fun to blog without publishing your name, or getting to write about your job, or getting to share your thoughts about your friends/boss/lover, or maybe publishing a personal photo or two.

So what you (ie, I) have are half-baked entries. If before, you can say you know everything about me, now, take a look at my blog, and you still sort cannot get what sort of person I am (I think, haha). But that's just me and my idea of blogging lol.

Even though I update my microblogging page approx a hundred more times than my blog, I still try to get back into the rhythm of blogging. Try. I miss it a lot. =( I just need a new layout. ha. ha.

I don't think personal blogs will die completely. It's gone down, yes, but there will always be that niche of brave souls who continue to blog personally and will slap on a face/identity to the entries, like some that are on here. But that's just how it'll be from now on - a small category among a long line of blog "types."

[Jessica]

I don't journal / blog as much. I do, however, keep a food blog which is updated more often (and more consistently!) than any of my other blogs at any other time.

I think there's just too much mediocrity out there (myself included) and things just got boring. Yes, it was exciting in the beginning to see how much people would share and expose of themselves over the internet in the beginning, but everyone is much more aware now and personally, I don't find it "cute" anymore that someone has found my blog. I guess I've just grown up?

[scott]

What is your food blog about? Recipes? Calorie counting?