I’ve proudly been on the internet for almost twenty five years. In the beginning, the barrier to entry to get a website – with a custom domain name and decent hosting – was incredibly difficult – and many people were pining to gain an unprecedented publicity with the internet. Once blogs became readily available, lots of interesting content was available to be read.
But as all things go, people outgrow blogging, citing newfound responsibilities that didn’t exist at the time. In addition, smartphones and social media has made it that people’s attention spans aren’t what they used to be. Those items, combined with Google placing less search emphasis on blogs and links than the past (remember Page Rank?), has caused blogging to become obsolete.
The proof is there: the more I revisit certain blogs, too many of them no longer exist due to the domain name not being renewed, or blogs stop being updated for many years, serving as an internet graveyard.
But I think there’s still a place for blogs. When posting something on social media, it’s “here today gone tomorrow.” Now granted, sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Linkedin, as well as platforms like WhatsApp and Instagram, suggest that these platforms aren’t going away soon (though my kids say that Facebook is for old people!). However, past experience shows that past internet giants like AOL, Yahoo, Angelfire, and MySpace are just as fickle as “the little guy,” and if your content is only on those platforms, it’s in danger of one day forever floating into cyberspace.
When you blog in a standalone platform, there’s a certain degree of staying power in what you write. It shows integrity on the writer, since whatever is available on a blog becomes publicly available, and information will eventually be archived. Generally, people trying to hide behind a “walled garden” don’t want to turn into different people online, and it makes sense: many people get fired from existing jobs, or turned away from potential job offers, due to stuff they posted on the internet once upon a time ago.
This is why I try to find a little bit of time here and there to blog, as it shows that I’m not afraid about what’s written, and that after all is said and done, that I can stand behind whatever I wrote and still look at myself in the mirror each day.