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| Artwork by Tarek Chemaly |
OK save for diehard people like me. Seems everyone else is 1) bored 2) migrated to Istagram/snapchat 3) is directly transmitting via social media channels 4) became an influencer/brand ambassador.
But, the result is still the same - blogging is no longer a thing it seems! Just go to Lebanese Blogs and assess the situation yourself. And yes, it is that bad. Oddly I am an adept of the mantra "when everyone zigs, zag" as Marty Neumeier said. When everyone is now acting as if blogging and constructing full comprehensible sentences in any language is so uncool, I continue to use Twitter, Facebook, Google plus and Linkedin just to spread the posts originally started on the blog. The only exceptions are artworks released daily via Instagram, which find themselves automatically shared on Facebook (different artworks, which come from the same series, have already made it to the blog in posts titled "questioning history").
Rarely if ever do I use any of the above mentioned social media to talk publicly to anyone rather privileging the messenger functions inside the sites in question.
But who - if anyone - is right? Tough question, it all goes back to what one wanted from their blog to begin with. My own vision, started in January 2007 never changed, never wavered, or recalibrated in focus. My number of readers is very healthy for a niche blog which almost exclusively focuses on the communication industry (with a bit of pop culture on the side). My posts - specifically those commenting on ads - are not too long, but require certain complexities which cannot be explained in status updates or 280 character tweets.
To have a blog requires dedication, and perseverance. And one must have thick skin - or develop one if originally lacking - to deal with the many people who give uninformed replies or hormonally-motivated answers. With time, even the trolls tend to go away as with what happened in my case (my record was 23 hate replies to a post in one day filled with personal insults).
What I can say however is that my own blog seems to keep the same number of audience monthly, while no post has been boosted and no campaigns have been launched.
There are no lessons to be drawn however, to each his own. I still enjoy having a page all to my own where relatively-complex thoughts are expressed. If others prefer other media it is up to them, one thing is for sure though, it is getting lonelier here by the day.