Last Updated on January 26, 2022
Would you say blogging changed a lot of the last decade or remained largely the same? Here’s the biggest change I’ve seen and one constant.
Apple Magazine recently published an article titled, “Blogging 10 years ago and now — What changed?” Yes, blogging changed over the last decade.
But for some of us, the changes haven’t been as noticeable.
I started this blog in February 2004, almost 18 years ago. If you have a hard time imagining that, you’re not alone. If you told me way back then I’d still be writing this many years later, I would have laughed in your face.
But you can stop some hobbies easier than others, I suppose.
The first blog began way back in 1994, the article states. My math tells me the blogosphere began 27 years ago. Today, the article states, readers can choose from among 600 million blogs “in nearly every possible niche.”
From that, you might argue there’s no point in starting a blog. Bloggers today face simply too much competition. You may wonder how a new blog might possibly “break through” and reach an audience.
But you bring to your potential blog something no one else can. You know your own experience. Others don’t. That alone makes your story unique to you.
That competition, combined with one other big change over the last 10 years, though, could be a big source of discouragement for new bloggers.
The biggest way blogging changed for me
When I started this blog 17 years ago, I chose a little known platform called AOL Journals. Members of the America Online community published their posts in their own blogosphere. I found it to be a tight-knit, supportive community.
I could publish a post and within hours have 20 comments or more.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I published a post and received 20 comments. Even over a period of days.
Everyone seems to be far too distracted and short on time to comment these days. I don’t take it personally anymore. I’ll admit that I used to. But I got over it.
I understand now that there are far too many more demands on people’s time. One of the biggest time sucks for people these days would have to be social media.
Facebook began the same year this blog did. We both know which of the two is by far the more successful.
When Facebook first began, it didn’t take the world by storm. That came later. But these days, some people do their “blogging” on that platform. Others do theirs on Twitter. They call it “microblogging” because the posts are much shorter than a traditional blog post.
I don’t call that blogging myself — but others do. For me, to blog, you have to have a blog.
But for others, the very definition of what a blog is changed over the past 10 years.
All the while, more people started spending time on social media, taking away from time spent on actual blog sites. Blogs began using social media as a way to promote their posts and comments — when they come — largely show up on social media rather than on the actual blog site.
Comments remain a problem that I don’t see going away anytime soon.
One thing that didn’t change
One line of Apple Magazine’s description of blogging in 2010 caught my eye:
Those without too many visits on their blogs struggled to make anything and only published content because of their need to write.
Their need to write.
I guess many of us who blog, even without much in the way of comments or page views — and certainly very little if any actual revenue — still have that one need.
I have the need to write. Even though my real job involves a great deal of writing, I still feel a need to write here. Something about this blog satisfies a creative urge.
I’d like to think that my writing has improved a good deal over 17 years. I’ve gone back and looked. Trust me: it did.
My stats improved in 2020 over 2019. Since I haven’t pulled 2021 stats yet, I don’t know for sure whether I can say that about 2021. Fingers crossed.
I suppose I’ll keep blogging as long as I feel that need to write.
I hope you’ll still come along for the ride from time to time.
