Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter – New York Times

Blogs were once the outlet of choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their allure for many people – particularly the younger generation. — Verne G. Kopytof, NYT, February 21.

Blogging’s soaring popularity reminded me of the mass appeal of  Citizen Band Radio when it was hot. Everyone had a handle. T.B. Knight was my moniker. After a while the sizzle faded. The amateurs had had enough. And the airwave returned  to the highway cops and the truckers who were using it before its mass appeal.  QMfE, “The same thing’s going to happen to blogging,” I told my students.

Wrote Gopytof: Former bloggers said they were too busy to write lengthy posts and were uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said they had no interest in creating a blog because social networking did a good enough job keeping them in touch with friends and family. [NYT article here.]

I encouraged my student reporters at the 2008 Democratic National Convention to experiment with blogging and they didn’t like the rewriting that I required them to do to post their blogs. Also, I was new to wordpress and it was too much to expect them to pick up on wordpress while they hustling for stories the Convention.

I was doing way too much copyediting and editing and layout. When we returned to campus, I noticed increased excitement – not action, just excitement — about getting students to blog either for the world or just as an intranet. I wasn’t excited.

The technology would evolve, I was thinking, and millions of bloggers would move on just as happened with CB. But where they would specially move was beyond my imagination. They  moved where personal information could easily be exchanged and writing was not paramount and multimedia was made simple and they could attract a group that would be interested in their mewing.

The heavyweights will continue to blog on — and facebook and twitter and … !!!

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