Well here's one reason to be cheerful: Bryan Appleyard has started blogging again, after disappearing (without explanation) for a couple of months. I've fixed the link to his new site over in the blogroll.
It seems to me that blogging has passed its peak of popularity and now in decline. More and and more blogs that I previously read seem to have moved permanently into cyberspace doldrums in the last year or so, and it certainly seems hard to find new blogs (especially sole author ones) that are active and engaging to replace those which have slowly died.
For people of a certain age, a move into social networking is almost certainly to blame. But a lot of adult bloggers presumably haven't become obsessed by the ephemeral Twitter.
Part of the reason for the blogging decline, I think, is that the Bush and Howard administrations were periods of considerable political and social controversy, and the whole question of the appropriate response to a terrorist threat is something about which it is "easy" to have a strong opinion. This encouraged people to voice their opinions in any forum, including their own blogs. Current world events, being dominated by economic crises, are so complicated in the details it is hard for your average person-in-the-street blogger to contribute very much about them.
So blogging is not what it used to be, but it might be something that is a bit cyclical. We'll see.
3 comments:
If there is something constant in life - it is that nothing stays the same, everything changes (usually for the worse).
I myself have been neglecting my Aetheric Journals for Tumblr. I will be trying to write a bit more frequently from now on.
I agree almost fully. Most of the blogs in the past five year period were left-wing sites born out of frustration with the right-wing ascendancy; now with Rudd in power in Australia and Obama in power in America, there's much less frustration. Those that do remain are often much more boring than they used to be. Larvatus Prodeo, for instance. Seriously, a lot of their posts nowadays are of the form 'Government launches historic and positive initiative! The Opposition has no chance! The end!' Hey guys - Liberals are in power in WA. Complain about them some more, why don't you?
Contra all that, There's been an interesting libertarian/cranky-conservative strand in UK blogs for a while now. For instance, Tim Worstall is still going strong, and David Thompson is an excellent new-ish blogger. Maybe politics really is a driving factor, and the rise and fall of Labour in the UK has caused a lot of right-wing crankiness and encouraged the start of blogs over there.
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