Back about eight or nine years ago when I started this blog, blogs were exploding all over the place. There were celebrity blogs, food blogs, movie blogs, sports blogs, mommy bogs, humor blogs—you name it, there was a blog associated with it. There were even blogs about blogs. Talk about standing in a hallway full of mirrors!
I got a charge out of writing my blog, Bill of the Birds. So much of the writing I do is very assignment- or info-delivery-driven that I had kind of forgotten how enjoyable it was to sit down and give yourself over to writing about something you were feeling or thinking or anticipating. I look back at some of the stuff I was writing about on BOTB and I see now that most similar things are being shared (by me and others) in the much more instantly gratifying social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter, and others.
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| It's hard to keep up with everything online. Just ask my friend Bill. |
This is perfectly understandable. After all, writing a blog post takes time. Posting to a social media channel takes almost no time at all, which is probably why there are daily news stories about social media faux pas. You barely have to think about it. Just click, tap a few words, and post. It's as easy as falling off a blog.
Blogging on the other hand seems to require more thought, deeper content, and images or links or something to augment the screen full of words. It takes time to create a blog post.
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| I'd like a clone who could help me keep up with my blog. |
Thus it's no surprise that so many blogs are not getting the volume of consistent posts that they once did. Some bloggers are bucking this trend, of course. They are the folks who devote the time necessary to create meaty content, usually around a theme. And these bloggers are reaping the rewards of a larger audience hungry for solid content.
Has social media killed blogging? Yes and no. It's certainly killed off the blogs of the folks who think in quips and short, punchy posts. Those folks do better and gain a wider audience on Facebook and Twitter. And so their blogs are mothballed or cob-webbed or closed. On the other hand, social media has served to be an excellent audience builder, as a tool to point readers/surfers to longer-form content that interests them.
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| An old blog post from 2006! |
For me (a self-admitted quipster) Facebook has stolen my mojo for blogging every day. I'm also a lot busier at work and at home than I've ever been (do you feel that way, too?) and most days the notion of writing a post for my blog is simply lost in the hailstorm of other, more pressing tasks.
But I miss writing for my blog! I miss the way my thoughts would form and shape-shift as I typed sentence after sentence while creating a post. Sometimes I'd get to the end and realize I needed to start all over! Other times I'd get going and, when I reached the end, I'd see that I needed to break this massive post up into several shorter ones. Yes I miss it.
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| Araçaris in silhouette. Shadows in the sunset. |
I wish there were a way to tag all of your favorite Facebook posts over a period of a few weeks, to create a single massive blog post. I'm sure some plug-in or app for that exists. But I haven't got time to search for it—I've got to upload some Instagram photos of my fabulous lunch today (just kidding!).
Before I bemoan the death of the blog, I'm going to attempt to find the time to write for my blog more often. And I'll be sure to announce on Facebook and Twitter when I've got a new post up, since that is where all the readers are these days! People have such short attention sp...HEY LOOK A CHICKEN!
I'll see you out there with the blogs!
Bill