Friend Blogs RIP

A few years ago many of my friends kept their own blogs. Most wrote about their lives, essentially keeping an electronic diary, while a few had thoughtful, analytical essays on topics of their choosing. I, too, was swept up by the trend and posted first on Xanga and now here.

For the last two or three years, quite a few of these blogs were abandoned. Now, I might see one or two updates every month if I am lucky.

What does this mean? Surely blogging in general is not dead. In fact, many well-known blogs are able to capitalize on their success at capturing large numbers of subscribers. It is the causal bloggers, those who initially blogged out of curiosity or just following their friends' lead, now got bored with the responsibility and moved on. I bet a lot of them moved on to microblogging sites such as Twitter.

Hence there is nothing wrong with casual bloggers feeling disinterested in maintaining their blogs. After all, we see trends materialize and fade away daily. This is just another one.

However, I did enjoyed reading my friends' blogs, even if they just wrote about their lives. In a way it kept us connected even though we might be thousands of miles apart. The writer/reader relationship also differs from a normal conversation. The former is a one way communication (not counting comments) and the writer is in charge, wherea the latter have both friends on equal standing. This allows me the reader the see my friend in a different light. You might also turn the last sentence around, that is the writer is able to present himself in a different light to his friends.

On the subject of new trends of blogging, I hereby declare I hate microblogging. Limiting your message to 140 characters means you can't present any complex ideas, like this post does. It encourages users to tell others about what they are doing right this moment. It appeals to our desire to peep into others' lives and laziness, because we don't have to write long paragraphs anymore. That makes the content empty and without substance. You can't look into the other's mind when all they post is what they just ate for dinner or a link to a funny webpage.

I can probably rant on for another three or four paragraphs, but I better stop. One of the side-effects with friends giving up on their blogs is that they also don't read any of their friends' blogs. It is not much fun writing alot when no one reads it.

Blogged with the Flock Browser