The blog has died - long live the blog!

The title is a bit perverse, but it conveys quite well what is now going on in the blogosphere. And there are different things going on currently: what you’ll see is up to what you want to look at. Some people predict the end of the blog as a medium that demands too much attention, which the lazy recipient spoilt by easy messages isn’t able to devote enough attention to. Others laugh when hearing words like these. You’re saying the blog’s going to die? It’s going to be superseded by, say, Instagram? Yeah, right.

Let me begin by saying that I’ve been interested in this phenomenon since it started in Poland. At that time, the blog was treated as a means of self-expression, a diary, a journal, and a platform for publishing amateur literature. Nobody had yet dreamt that the time would come for the blog to become a fully-fledged expert medium. A place making it possible to obtain substantive knowledge (the audience's benefit) and, on the other hand, to generate financial profit - in short: to make money (the author's benefit).

Going back to the point though - What about the blog’s future?

I strongly believe that there’s no threat to it. Perhaps it results from my belief that there are many people who want not only to skim the issue but also to truly immerse themselves in it. Yes, Instagram can be launched when waiting in a queue to a dentist or for a tram, and then abandoned with no hassle. But you won't find out there why it's worth visiting the area around Naples, where to eat good Thai cuisine, and how to prepare wood properly to apply chalk paint. You can’t compare the rich content that blogs offer to the fast and easily accessible content offered by media such as Facebook, Instagram, or even Twitter. While these media let the author of the message only signal the issue and the audience learn a smattering of the subject, the blog - thanks to its unlimited format - allows you to deal with the problem in an exhaustive and fully satisfying way. Also, I must mention here another limitation of social-media platforms. Their constantly restrained reach is detrimental to the availability of the content transmitted through them, and the policy of political correctness (controlled also by bots that don’t understand much) doesn’t always allow freedom of expression. In this context, blogs are an exceptionally reliable, trustworthy, and FREE place for the content presented. What’s more, the blog on the domain you have purchased is practically your property and I really don't know what you’d have to present on it in order for your content to be blocked.

I know the issue also from commercially active bloggers and I know that brands that respect themselves, when entering into product placement cooperation, definitely prefer exhaustive blog posts full of substantive guidelines, original phrasing, volubility, and humour over laconic mentions in an Instagram feed featuring a mark referring the visitor to the brand's profile. The latter is more of a desirable supplement to the basic thing, which is a blog post.

So long live the blog! Perhaps in many people’s eyes, it has died. Maybe there are people tired of his demanding form, but I believe that the hunger for knowledge, the desire to improve skills, or even the need for high brow entertainment - will always prevail.

Ewa