I’ve read several recent articles (Exhibit A, Exhibit B) talking about a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project about the apparent peak of blogging. Evidently, younger generations are abandoning the long-format blog post in favor of tools that leverage short bursts of information (i.e. Twitter or Facebook).
Interestingly, older generations are turning in ever increasing numbers to blog as a news source.
As a blogger (although only recently in a concentrated and dedicated effort), I am saddened by a bit of analysis from one of the articles I read (that I also agree with):
But perhaps Pew has stumbled on something – that we are witnessing another nail in the coffin of nuanced communication, which has been on life support since the advent of instant messaging and was nearly snuffed out with the prevalence of texting.
For me, blogging is about sharing–via the written word–well-formed thoughts or ideas, be they about business, technology, your children, or any other topic that you care to opine about (thank you Bill O’Reilly for re-introducing that word in to the popular lexicon). The ability to generate well written prose (not that all of mine on this site falls in to that category, but I digress) takes patience and practice, which are two traits not often associated with today’s got-to-have-it-now society.
Granted, generating a well-written Tweet or Facebook status takes practice as well and is writing, too, but, to me, it’s just not the same.
Yes, blogging takes time. But all worth-while activities do to one extent or another. So let’s not abandon it yet as a quaint idea of yesteryear quite yet. Besides, someone is going to have to write the blog content that the older generations wan to read.
UPDATE: The evidence keeps piling up: “Email Gets an Instant Makeover“.
UPDATE 2: Yet more evidence: “E-Mail Usage Plummets as Teens Turn to Mobile, Social Networking“.
