A fellow blogger, bone&silver, wondered the other day if quick, visual media like Instagram and TikTok have stolen us from WordPress and word-based-blogging. I’ve thought about her post almost every day since I read it two weeks ago. I was struck particularly by her observation not that we are all scrolling and consuming these quick reels these days — I think we can all agree we do that — but that bloggers aren’t blogging as much. I hadn’t quite put that together until she stated it so plainly.
At least three-quarters of my favourite bloggers have either stopped altogether and disappeared, or else just post once a month or so.
– bone&silver
I, too, had stopped blogging. Her post motivated me to start again. Like many bloggers, I’m on again off again with publishing. I’ll go on a several-day streak, and then I’ll dry up and stop, sometimes for weeks or months. Or I’ll publish sporadically when the mood strikes. The mood has struck since reading her post, and I’m leaning into it while it lasts.
I’m not on Facebook or TikTok, but I do scroll Instagram. What I get from it is fleeting. I see a cat or sheep video that makes me giggle, or a photo of a friend that makes me happy to see their face again, and get a snapshot of where they are in their life. And those things are good! But I don’t get a lot of insight into thoughts or feelings, and most of what I consume doesn’t stick with me or make me think. Words take more time, but I like their depth and meaning.
Butterfly Mind 
I think about blogging every day. While I haven’t posted in almost 3 years, I would like to blog again, but I don’t know what I want to say. Time to write isn’t an issue, but the inspiration to start and finish even one post just hasn’t been there of late.
Maybe I’ve changed? Micro-blogging isn’t my thing, although I do post on FB occasionally.
So, I’m working through that – we’ll see what happens. I appreciate this post, Andrea!
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Just created my first blog ever today. Still not sure what I will be blogging, but I took the first step. Found this blog post and felt encouraged and inspired. Thank YOU.
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I’m really glad that you started posting more again. I really like being able to sit down with your thoughts and feelings and process them long-form. That’s how I’ve always like to interact with people. Facebook really killed that for me though and it’s made me really sad for a decade and a half.
I really want to blog publicly more too. I put so much of my communication energy into my job though that I find it difficult to sit down and blog for any sort of pleasure. I really need to figure it out though because I feel so much better when I do blog.
Personally, I don’t think any technology will ever kill long-form writing though. Convenient options may seem more appealing for a while, but you don’t get the total freedom of expression that you do from blogging (or other forms of writing).
I do think that smartphones have complicated things some though. There are many people in the world who really don’t have a personal computer at home and use their smartphone for everything. Social media becomes appealing on that platform because it’s so much easier to consume and create visual content than it is to do any extended writing.
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