Blogging is no longer what it was

An article in The Economist of November 6th entitled "Oh, grow up", highlighted the way that blogging has entered the mainstream and explored the positive and negative implications of this. The article was prompted by the 'retirement' of A-list blogger Jason Calacanis, who complained that "blogging had become simply too  big, too impersonal, and now lacks the intimacy that drew me to it." As the article rightly pointed out, this is probably typical of all media as they become more commonplace, the transition looking to its pioneers as 'suspiciously like death'. Music lovers will have experienced a similar phenomenon - the fans who find a great new band when they first start out, will feel somehow let down should the band become commercially successful. Early adopters like to be starting trends, not following them.

Blogging may have become mainstream, with many of the most popular blogs operated by publishers and broadcasters, and with only thinly-disguised promotional blogs now commonplace, but it is an exaggeration to say that it has become the tool of the masses: the everyday use of blogs for individuals to communicate with friends and family has been largely replaced by social networking. People who blog regularly are making a big commitment and are likely to have either a professional justification for this effort, or a strong desire (and ability) to communicate. The reality is that these people are going to represent a small minority, probably in the region of 1% of the population, as predicted by the '90-9-1 rule'.

The hard core of regular bloggers has to be resilient. Calacanis found the pressure of staying on the A-list wearing (which, although I'm probably a lot further down the alphabet, is one reason why I don't look at my readership stats). He also disliked the tone of some blogging: “Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarised, and so filled with haters hating that it’s simply not worth it.” Probably not the case with edublogging, but there are times!

The article goes on to suggest that "gone is any sense that blogging as a technology is revolutionary, subversive or otherwise exalted, and this upsets some of its pioneers." This may be the case, in which case those looking for more thrills might graduate to new media, perhaps Twitter. As for me, I don't care if blogging is not quite as sexy as it might once have been; mainstream or not, it is providing a useful resource for readers, and wonderful therapy for the writers.