Is Blogging Dead?

Here I am, writing the second post of my second blog, and I just learned that blogging is dead.  Now, that’s a real pity. Just when I finally think I’m catching up with trends, I discover that I’m years behind. 

 

I learned the news of the untimely demise of the blog through another blog.  According to the author, Buddy Scalera, it is marketing and short attention spans that are killing the blog.  He, of course, was referring to an article by Paul Boutin from Wired Magazine that put forth a great deal of effort trying to drive a stake into the heart of blogging.  According to Wired Magazine, “Twitter, Flickr and Facebook make blogs look “so 2004″.”  Scalera and Boutin contend that blogging is about to be replaced by Twitter.  People’s attention spans have now been reduced to just 140 characters, the length of a “Tweet” (or Twitter post).

 

Ironically, I had just spent to morning on Twitter trying to learn how to use it.  I kept thinking, there must be more to it than this. The search feature was temporarily down, so I couldn’t find much of interest to me except election commentary.  Still, I was able to make one important observation.  Many Tweets are being used to promote blogs.  In many cases, the Tweet becomes a teaser to draw the reader through a link to lengthier discourse.  In the end, it may turn out that more people are interested in writing than they are in reading.  Time will tell.