Blogging Is Dead! Long Live Blogging!
I was really happy when this thing called "blogging" — a derivation of "web log" — hit the web in the late 1990s.
I had had the idea of keeping a journal on my web site, but creating new static pages every time I had a new idea for an article or observation was — quite frankly — a massive pain the the ass!
Up until the advent of the blog, the primary "social" aspect of the web came from forums, messageboards and newsgroups. Blogs were so cool because they combined creative writing with immediate feedback through social engagement.
The first time I recall blogging being declared "dead" was not that long after the advent of MySpace and Facebook.
In retrospect, the slightly odd selling point of these was that you "no longer needed to write anything."
Which, I suppose, is how a large part of human nature functions, because we invent things we feel are pretty amazing, and then we immediately go to work on trying to find ways to not do those things... on some (typically unwritten) assumption that even though millions of people actually enjoy a particular activity, we should automate it.
Non-sequitur alert: Maybe I am just getting old but I would have zero interest in watching a Wimbledon tennis final played between two robots driven by AI.
Put a mental bookmark in that: Automation and abbreviating isn't always a positive development.
Non-sequitur alert no. 2: A friend in the movie industry is despairing about the future of feature films, noting the growing trend of younger viewers to immediately ask "How LONG is it?" before anything else about a new film, and if the film is long, stating that they'll "wait and watch the synopsis on YouTube, instead."
Again, how is this a positive development? Another mental bookmark, there.
But getting back to blogging, it has been declared "dead" on many occasions.
After MySpace and Facebook, it was declared "dead" once again when twitter gained serious traction.
Multiple iterations of "deadness" have followed... and there are even those here in our own Hive community who believe that we owe a significant part of Hive's "stagnancy" to the fact that "nobody reads blogs or long for content; blogging is DEAD!"
Of course, the "shortening" trend is not just isolated to blogging and writing feature length articles. As I alluded to, it is invading the film industry. Heck, it's even affecting video channels like YouTube, where we now have "shorts" everywhere, for those who can't handle sitting through an eight minute video.
Some people point to the fact that we are moving towards a world where "long form" ANYTHING will become obsolete, because we will have AI to get our information for us.
Whoa! Wait... WHAT?
Let's pause for a moment to consider where AI GETS its information.
AI gathers its "answers" from the vast body of information out there. If we actually want AI to be helpful to the world and to our lives... wouldn't we rather have those answers compiled from in depth coverage of wisdom, rather than memes and one-liners?
Think about it for a moment: You're on the operating table, with a robot "autodoc" about to perform brain surgery on you, driven by AI. Where would you like the necessary information to safely and effectively perform the procedure to come from? Detailed articles, or some "Dude, use a harp knife!" tweet?
Yeah, I know, now a chorus of AI fanboys and fangirls are going to climb out of the woodwork and declare "That's not how it works!"
Maybe it isn't... exactly, but at the same time I find the potential slippery slope towards the future reality depicted in the movie Idiocracy rather evident, should we continue to choose feeding our eternal dopamine addictions with meaningless "likes" in place of actually taking the time to not only share actual knowledge, as well as chronicling our existence.
Blogging is not dead! Long Live Blogging!
Till the next one... Feel free to leave a comment — this IS "social" media, after all!
I've been thinking about it all week, since I read someone say something along the lines of how talking about your weekend here or whatever devalues Hive and 'no one wants to read that shit'.
You know what I don't want to read? The preambles from privileged influences over sharing before giving me their recipe. Just give me the recipe. And if it's AI written content, I literally hate you. The only authentic, original content is people here just talking about 'whatever'
PS it's probably why no one reads my stories though. They don't do well here. Maybe people don't get them, or look at the word count and vomit.
So anyways, my weekend...
It's ironic, all in all, how Dan Larimer — in the very beginnings of this community, talked about the possibility of creating this as a repository of human experiences and events. The Internet of PEOPLE, the idea being that the immutable and decentralized nature of the blockchain makes this a place where we could ostensibly store our stories for future generations to look at.
Anyone claiming that Hive is devalued by "that shit" might do well to go back and look at the original vision that gave shape to this place.
I hate AI, too. Let AI compile medical records and compare bacteria studies to extrapolate the best course of treatment. Leave it out of art and creativity.
=^..^=
Well said. God Dan seems a far and distant memory. But by jove, ain't that a dream to remember?
PS I AM slightly worried future gens of mine might read seven years of my drivel. . though with attention spans on the decline, they might only read a few days of it and get bored...
Good Read right there.
We are currently living Idiocracy.
Sometimes, it really does feel that way!
=^..^=
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I chuckled through the whole post, good read, great blog. I too have a little issue with today's 'youth' only being interested only in shorter and shorter everything. Attention span - what is that? And, yes, NO to AI for any type of creativity- yay!!
And, of course, blogging isn't dead. I started in the blogosphere also in the late 90s and then moved on to Wordpress in the early 2000s, now I'm on Hive and I like it. For the most part. I cannot stand negativity e.g. Hive is going to die, everyone is leaving stuff like that. But that is a 'me-problem' I fully acknowledge and I'm working on it.
Long Live Blogging!