Chasing Rabbbits

πŸ’¬ Return of the Blog

Blogs are dead.

A common refrain. Much like email. And RSS (post-Google Reader).

But all 3 keep trucking along.

What if that much touted death was really just a failed first try? A pre-release preview. A beta test.

Social media is the alleged murder, but it might actually be the catalyst. More people than ever before are used to publishing online. People who may have started blogs created accounts instead, but the muscle is the same. The action is now normal.

Previously, potential blogs may have been thwarted by questions like "what would I blog about?" or "why would anyone care?" Now the answers are known: anything and because.

I think blogs will be more likely to succeed now, paving the way for a new golden age of indie online publishing (because that's really what blogging is).

The available platforms and tools are more plentiful and easier to use. Many are mobile friendly. And some (like Micro.blog and Mastodon (if you believe it's really just blogs)) have mobile experiences very similar to social media. If you tweet, you can microblog. If you 'gram, you can photoblog. If you TikTok, you can vlog (I don’t know how well you can vlog without using a major, quasi-social platform so I’m not sure why I have this one here, but I’m leaving it).

The main drawback of blogging before social media still exists - and in a post-social media world probably seems like an even bigger drawback - distribution and viral loops are not inherent to the medium. Some (hi, I'm the problem, it's me) see this as a feature and not a bug.

Starting a blog is more technically involved than opening a social account. (I'm not sure how it stacks up against creating a Mastodon account, I'm the right kind of weird to not get discouraged by either.) The first hard step is selecting a platform. The second hard step is designing and configuring your blog, if you're that kind of personality (ask me how I know). The second/third hard step (or first, depending on your order of operations) is registering and configuring a custom domain name. The good news is, none of these are insurmountable. And there is plenty of documentation on how to do all these things across the web. And and, depending on the platform you choose, many or all could be built in as easy, few-click options.

Really, the hardest part about starting a blog these days is retraining the habit of which icon you click when you unlock your phone. (And finding a different dopamine source in some cases.)

The best part about blogging? You own it. it's yours. You aren't planting, tending, and harvesting a plot of land in somebody else's walled garden. Subject to their whims and whimsies, or their rules about what you need to plant if you want the best harvest (cough cough Reels cough).

And if all of that still feels like too much, start a newsletter.

This rabbbit hole is brought to you in part by: episode 542 of the Core Intuition podcast.

#essays #thoughts