Blogging is dead! That’s right…it’s dead, gone, worthless to even consider starting your own blog and a complete waste of time if you already have one.
Yes folks, blogging is completely passé, it’s just sooo 2004 or that’s what Paul Boutin of Wired News would have you believe when you read his article, Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004. And he starts things off with this kicker:
Thinking about launching your own blog? Here’s some friendly advice: Don’t. And if you’ve already got one, pull the plug.
Now isn’t that a fine way to get attention?
And with what should you replace your blogging with pray tell? Why Flickr, Facebook and Twitter for starters, that’s what. It’s just so much easier and efficient that way.
Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths. It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.
So instead of sitting down with a concept and idea and putting them down on virtual paper for others to read and perhaps comment upon, instead of taking your time proof reading and perhaps changing a word or two here, a phrase or two there to make sure you get your point across, you should actually be limiting yourself to expressing your ideas, thoughts and feelings to 140 characters or less? If you can’t do that obviously you’re wasting your time? One picture is worth a thousand words I suppose? Not in this case it doesn’t. Which words? What words?
And what about the good folks who stop by your blog every day and leave comments? What about them?
Apparently, according to the article, the only type of commenter a new blogger is likely to get these days are bottom feeding trolls and insult/hate mongers. Same goes for us blogging veterans if we choose to continue in this apparently foolish endeavor of ours according to what Paul has to say. A complete waste of time.
And why is that you wonder?
Because we’ll all be drowned out by those cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns he speaks of, that’s why. So expressing yourself through a social network is better? I think not.
Okay, okay…I admit that any time you quote from an article you can’t help but take that quote out of context and inevitably end up giving the wrong impression. And that’s exactly what I’ve done here. And by the way…that last quote up above is exactly 309 characters long which is hardly enough to give anyone reading my little post here of what Paul’s article is actually trying to say. My point here is that you simply cannot express yourself like you can on your own blog when you limit yourself to the likes of Flickr, Facebook and Twitter.
Sorry folks but Twitter ain’t blogging. It’s the online equivalent to text messaging. It’s a fine service, but it ain’t blogging.
The problem herein lies in that he’s attempting to compare the classic personal or niche style blog each with it’s own social microcosm of posts, comments and replies to the popular social networks of today as if they were the same type of thing. They’re not. It’s the old apples and oranges routine done in virtual.
Facebook, Flickr and Twitter definitely have their place and purpose and can easily compliment blogging and visa-versa but they can never replace blogging. And I don’t know about anybody else but as far as I’m concerned the days of rating your blog according to Google’s Page Rank and old standby’s like Technorati are over. While Technorati is still a great way to see who’s linking to your blog, it’s no longer an accurate gauge as to how “important” your blog really is and neither is Google’s Page Rank really.
For example:
If I put my online moniker, Kirk M, into a Google search my little 3 year old personal blog is 3rd from the top on the first page of results and that’s a general search, not a blog search. And according to Google, my small, low trafficked, non-Stumbled, non-Dugg corner of the blogosphere actually has a Page Rank of 5.
Now what does that tell you about accuracy?
Still, I hardly think I’ll quit simply because Paul’s article made the headline’s today (even though the article is hardly the truth of the matter) or because Jason Calacanis happened to retire from blogging earlier this year after he made millions from his Weblogs network.
And really, who cares? He did his thing, had his hand in…well…enough surprisingly familiar online entities to gain much notoriety (both good and bad), and an entry in Wikipedia (and I imagine much, much more). He made lots of $$$ doing what he did and then he retired at the ripe old age of 38—the bum. More power to him I say (he’s still a bum).
So thanks for your concern and kind advice Mr. Paul Boutin but I believe I’ll just keep puttering along the way I have been, thank you very much. I like putting my ugly mug out in public view and I just happen to be very fond of those fellow bloggers I’m happy to call my friends that I met while I was doing so.
You can look over the article for yourself of course but the way I read it, it’s a fine piece of well written satire never mind being a load of somewhat obvious comment bait. And I will say that as a journalist, Paul Boutin really seems to know his stuff especially when it comes to getting people’s attention. After all, to write a great satirical piece, you have to understand exactly what you’re referring to, don’t you?
Seems kind of funny though that when I pointed out something similar in a comment on his article, it posted as the 97th comment and there haven’t been any since.
How about that?
Sorry, but Twitter, Facebook, etc. cannot replace blogs. Facebook is a social community for staying in touch with family, friends, etc., and Twitter just allows you to put whatever random thought rolls through your mind out there for the whole world to see. Do I really need to know that someone’s dinner last night is causing them “issues” this AM? Or more “pieces of flair” for my virtual bulletin board? Both Twitter and Facebook have more “noise” than “signal”.
Bloggers take time to carefully craft an article on whatever subject they are writing about. Can you imagine trying to do a political debate between candidates where their answers have to be 140 characters or less? Or someone writing a tutorial on something new in WordPress – 140 characters or less eh? Can’t be done.
There is a place/purpose on the internet for each thing – Twitter, Facebook, and blogs. No reason they can’t peacefully co-exist.
Just my 3 cents worth…
(whoops, my answer was more than 140 characters!)
Hi Kim, welcome to the blog and all that.
Oh wouldn’t I just love to see that. Their brains would probably seize up from the attempt.
You’re 3 cents seems to jive with my 2 cents and that just means one thing…
…we have 5 cents between us.
And shame on you for going over 140 characters and (gasp) expressing yourself all over my comment section. (thanks!)
Blog became a dirty word?
Twitter is really just and application for (short) random thoughts. Did you know that corporate hounds such as Cox Communications sniff through for any mentioning of their companies to deal with complaints posted on Twitter? Personally, I’m not a fan of it, but consider it a necessary evil as I play with exposure.
I support the argument that Facebook is more of an online gathering place for friends and family. It’s like a safer version of MySpace. But replacing blogs? Hardly. Facebook displays posts from your blog into a feed for you for all your friends on Facebook to see. Again, not replacing, just adding to your blog like Google RSS reader.
Flickr? May be useful for a photography blog, but look at Scott Kelby’s blog – he’s not using it, and he’s one of the top guys in the Photoshop and Photography fields. That’s right, I said his blog. However, I do have family that use Flickr instead. To effectively use Flickr as a photography blog, you have to pay an annual fee. Why would I do that when I have already paid for my domains and hosting space for my blogs?
I follow a lot of blogs. 85 alone in the graphic design realm that I check daily, another set of 40+ web comics that I follow near-daily, as well as my own two – one graphic, one web comic. I’ve noticed a trend of incorporating Twitter, Flickr, and Facebook into their blogs as a design element or an added fun toy. These don’t replace their blogs in any fashion, just adds to it.
My opinion? This guy, who wrote a blog, is tired of his job and wants to find something else to do. Or he found one too many corporate blogs while drunk one night and the idea stuck. One man’s reality doesn’t necessarily match that of the rest of the world.
HI Emma and welcome aboard.
I can believe Cox Communications would do just about anything these days. And I have to agree, Jason C. had his hands into a lot of things so I can see why he’d get tired of it all. But then again why not? He made his fortune so why not enjoy it while his still young enough to enjoy it?
I stopped by your site and left a comment by the way. I definitely like the look!
I certainly do not agree with the author of the article that you quoted. Twitter and Facebook will never replace blogging, it’s not even in the same category. I found it surprising that he would even suggest such a thing.
You keep writing Kirk and we’ll keep reading
Hi Elaine,
I still have to believe he wrote that as a
hystericalsatirical piece. I can just see myself wordy self trying to get my point across by Twittering (should I flap my arms while I’m at it?)I think each of these media compliment each other.
I use twitterfeed to auto anounce a new blog post
Twitter then updates my facebook status
I don’t use Flickr but it is an integral part of many blogs
I think blogging will be around for a while yet!
Hey Quickroute,
Exactly! They can work in harmony but never sing the same part (well, something like that).
*sigh*
I don’t understand the hate, it’s like it’s fashionable to hate on Twitter.
Yes, I love Twitter as my 8k updates in 1 1/2 years prove. I have 300 people I follow, 220 that follow me and I spend a lot of time on there in conversation. It’s a mix of real life friends, work friends, internet friends, people from different gaming communities, blog readers and much more. Plus the ability to somewhat be in contact with people like Stephen Fry.
I think the label ‘microblogging’ for Twitter is wrong. Microblogging is tumblr or Pownce or Jaiku, but Twitter’s more of a quick update and survey tool as well as communication.
Hi Cat,
It’s not that there’s any hate for Twitter here, everyone agrees that it’s just what you said it was, “a quick update and survey tool as well as communication.” In fact, that describes the service well. And I absolutely agree with you about the microblogging label, that’s not what Twitter is or Facebook and Flickr for that matter.
It was the statement that was made by the author I quoted where he says that blogging has been/or should be replaced by Twitter, Facebook and Flickr, that blogging was now a complete waste of time–that’s what I disagreed with.
For my rather un-”social networking” type self, Facebook scares me, I use Flickr to host images for my blog only (the only family I have left is my sister and she despises computers) and Twitter? Heck, I haven’t figured out how to find anybody yet.
If you can tell me how the h*** you can find people on Twitter without knowing their Gamil, Yahoo, Hotmail, AOL, whatever, email address…I’ll follow you too.
Kirk….follow the link to Cat’s blog…and her twitter info is right there
See how easy that was .
Just follow the yellow brick road
Ah, thanks! You should know me by now…I’m “socially” impaired.
Comes from being a genius I guess.
Just replying to myself so I can see how the new comment threading works with 2.7 and this new theme of mine.
Edit: works pretty slick. I like the expanding java script effect. Keeps replies from cluttering up. I think I’ll leave this comment here just to confuse folks.
Indeed, it’s on my blog or http://twitter.com/carocat. It’s protected though, only people I choose can view it, aka logged in people.
Also have a look here: http://carocat.co.uk/2008/12/14/how-to-the-big-twitter-related-link-post/
/blatant self advertisement.
Unashamed self promotion from you is always acceptable here.
You should do it more often.
Haha, thanks.
I don’t leave many comments these days though, I think I’m getting too lazy!
You…lazy???
Never!