Where Have All The Bloggers Gone?

 

I started blogging nearly as long ago as I have been on social media. Over the years I've had numerous blogs with different names, never being able to leave well enough alone. If memory serves, when it all started, blogs on Blogger and a few more on WordPress were the norm. Twitter was in its infancy and Facebook hadn't yet been born to eventually wipe out platforms like MySpace (remember them?). Instagram and TikTok were unheard of.

It was fun and friendly and everyone had a little piece of the internet to write about anything they wanted. Though most of us were essentially diarying our lives online rather than on paper. I must have followed a couple of dozen or more blogs at one time. Then just a few years ago, things started to change, as they do.

Blogging became about numbers. How many subscribers did you have? Was your content "relevant"? I never did understand what that one meant. Then you had to have a "site", not a blog and it had to be as slick looking as a glossy magazine. Bloggers were registering domain names, setting up professional sites (or hiring someone to set it up for them), buying pricey cameras (cell phones hadn't reached the heights of photography they do now), and becoming specialists in some topic or other. 

The era of the influencer was born. Some bloggers went pro, making money, traveling (some with staff!) and being inundated with offers of products and services. Events were held by brands who counted on attendants posting about it later. Some events were invitation only. Nothing appeals so much as exclusively! Then you had to branch out and promote your site content on other social media. And slowly but surely, the other social media became more important than the blog. Instagram comes to mind. A photo with a blurb and some thoughtful hashtags and suddenly micro blogging was born. Now photos aren't good enough, you must be making short videos or "reels" and posting them all over the place. Companies are shameless about pushing people to do their advertising for them using the individual's account and expecting the sort of time and effort put in that you once paid a PR team for, all for a scented candle as payment.

Any wonder most of the people I used to follow have stopped blogging. Some are still on Twitter or Instagram. But mostly, they have quietly disappeared. Boy do I miss the days of old school blogging.

To quote Brooks in Shawshank Redemption, "the world has gone and got itself into a big damn hurry".  Me, I plan to stay right here where its quiet, fun and friendly.