Okay, so let me start by saying that the title of this post is a little strange because I just started a new blog (The Back Catalog) about a week ago. So obviously I don't actually think that the blog concept is dead.
However. Let me take you back to earlier today. Earlier today, I saw AJ's post and thought to myself, I should post on Egypt 6 again. Bring it back to life. But then I realized something. I do "blog" all the time. It's called Twitter. All my random musings about life and updates on how my life is going appear in small sub-140-character status updates. And for longer versions, people often use Facebook to describe in detail what's going on or what opinions they have. So I just feel like the average person has a lot less use for a blog (or a personal home page, for that matter), in the current world of "social networking."
However, I think there is still room for blogs with specialized focus. For example, my new blog is a music review site; and there is no good way I could accomplish that by using Facebook or Twitter. I just think that the day of the personal blog may have passed us by.
The Death of the Blog?
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4 comments:
I think I am going to have to disagree with you here on several points. First however, I do agree that twitter does a great job of creating a mosaic of random musings. That being said, I do not believe twitter or facebook does a great job of creating deep conversation on any particular topic. In reality, it makes up for depth of conversation with the quantity of posts that come from real-time communication. This is not a bad thing, but rather is just a different form of communication.
Regarding facebook in particular, although relatively speaking you can have longer posts than twitter, this isn't its strength either. The strength of facebook is that the user can curate these snippets... the twitter posts, the FB updates etc... and blend them with other media such as pictures and video to help them tell their own personal story.
Given your criteria for why you believe a blog should exist today, I would say that it only justifies why we should keep Egypt 6 alive... Unlike twitter and Facebook, Egypt 6 provides a specialized forum where three individuals debate/discuss a variety of topics in-depth. The posts may not come as often as you will find in other media, but they are thoughtful and almost always address each others questions and concerns.
Although this may not be the coolest analogy, our blog, as well as blogs in general, can serve as the Sunday morning debate shows of the web where pundits of different varieties sit and debate the issues. (Our issues just so happen to be different than many of the stuffy types that happen to be on those shows.) What I like about doing it this way is that unlike the new media or even the people you find on Fox News or MSNBC, our discussions are not full of sound bites, but rather we try to bring insight to the topic and if people are interested, they will want to tune in and learn more. If not, then it is still no loss if we enjoy doing it.
I'm sold! :) I'm going to try and think about Egypt6 when I'm posting on Twitter, and write a more in-depth post to go along with any tweet that is starting to get into something interesting.
However, my original point was not that blogs have no use. It's that I think they are going away because, for the average blogger, they are just writing about opinions and daily events, not really examining anything too intellectually. So their "blogging" needs are covered by Twitter/Facebook.
Basically I'm saying we have superior intellect and we should keep this site going. :)
I agree that there are better forums for just just chit-chat.
I also like this idea of having "superior intellect." :)
Joe beat me to the punch with his reply; I second that emotion. On a side note, it's difficult for me to accept the idea--especially when I get excited about a new technology--that certain ways of communicating may not be relevant for all situations...or all people. I agree that the blog post is best for detailed discussion, and I definitely found a few blogs useful when writing my last paper. Instead of being the everyman's homepage, blogs are now just another tool in our media arsenal.
In conclusion:
The Blog is Dead! Vive le Egypt 6!
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