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Blogging Gives Way to Facebook and Twitter Use

You can trace the (potential) decline and fall of the blogosphere in 140 characters, or less: Blogging has given way to micro-blogging on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. In the ‘80s, “video killed the radio star,” as the song went. In the 2010’s has widespread adoption of social media sites killed the blogosphere stars? According to a recent New York Times article, perhaps.

“Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online,” writes Verne Kopytoff. “But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people — particularly the younger generation.”

According to a 2010 study from the Pew Research Centre, blogging by younger age groups has notably collapsed. From 2006 to 2009, blogging by teens aged 12 to 17 years fell by roughly 50%, while amongst 18 to 33 year olds – a prime demographic for marketers and retailers – there was a 2% drop over the same time period.  The latter statistic shows only a very moderate drop in usage, admittedly; but it is telling, nonetheless, given the soaring use of social media.

Has Blogging Gone the Way of Letter Writing?

At first blush, and looking at the overall picture, it seems that blogging may have given way to the use of more accessible and effortless social media applications, just as letter writing gave way to virtually universal telephone and e-mail accessibility. (Perhaps not uncoincidentally, blogging by older dempgraphics went against the overall drop in use of the blogosphere. Blogging by 34 to 45 year old Internet users climbed by 6%, amongst 46 to 55 year olds by 5%, and amongst 65 to 73 year olds by 2%, from 2006 to 2009 according to Pew.)

“Blogging started its rapid ascension about 10 years ago as services like Blogger and LiveJournal became popular,” Kopytoff writes. “So many people began blogging — to share dieting stories, rant about politics and celebrate their love of cats — that Merriam-Webster declared “blog” the word of the year in 2004,” he notes.

Posting a Photo to Facebook Is Easier than Writing 1,000 Words

In a culture – particularly a youth culture – that is increasingly busy and focused on more or less immediate gratification, a move to social media sites that provide easy-to-use and easy-to-connect platforms for expression of the minutiae of life (where you went, what you listened to, what you saw) is understandable. It is so much easier and faster to upload a photo to Facebook than it is to describe what you saw in a 1,000 words – to stretch an old adage – that it might seem inevitable that blogging will drop off the media map. But yet, as Marshall McLuhen famously observed, “The media is the message.”

Kopytoff rightly notes that with the advent of point-and-click social media sites  – and, particularly the soaring adoption of Twitter – Internet users no longer need a blog to connect with the world. However, the culture of most social media sites (and even the structure of a site, in the case of Twitter) precludes all but the most superficial discussion. Indeed, if this article was posted to Facebook, how many readers would have persevered so far? Most, I suspect, would have clicked over to see the status of some other friend and what he or she is up to.

Blogging as a “Substantive Conversation”

“If you’re looking for substantive conversation, you turn to blogs,” Elisa Camahort Page, cofounder of the women’s blog network, BlogHer, told Kopytoff. “You aren’t going to find it on Facebook, and you aren’t going to find it in 140 characters on Twitter.”

Indeed, some blogs – like the Huffington Post that was recently purchased by AOL, and the Daily Beast that was merged with a sputtering Newsweek  magazine – are emerging to occupy media space that was formerly the exclusive domain of television, magazines and newspapers. Facebook and Twitter, on the other hand, are used almost exclusively for peer-to-peer communication or, at best, as news sources (as seen in Egypt and the Middle East).

While the Pew research is compelling, the ultimate direction of the blogosphere is likely to emerge from longer-term trends, as younger age groups mature and presumably have more in-depth commentary to share amongst themselves and with the world. But more likely the direction of the blogosphere will be determined by new and emerging social media platforms.

It seems most unlikely that rapid-fire 140 character bursts of social commentary will be the definitive last word in social media usage. It seems far to premature to forecast the decline and fall of the blogosphere, as yet. The blogosphere, if anything, seems to be continually evolving as social media use continues to boom.

About the guest author:
James Barry covers social media marketing and related topics for Wolf21.com, a Toronto-based firm offering a full product line of SEO services.