The decline of blogs

Over the week-end, I read a story on the New York Times website about how the use of blogs is declining. You can see it here. It made me think about why I write in this blog and why I bother to write anything at all.

Why do I take the time to write in this blog? While it's like a splash of sunshine on a wintry day when someone posts a comment on one of my posts, that's not the reason I do it. I know I'll never be well known for my writing and I'll never get a large following. And, to tell the truth, I wouldn't even want a large following. Then I would feel more pressure to get posts out on time and to write with my readers in mind. I don't like being self-centered but there it is - I do this for myself. And I do it for two reasons:

1. I write in this blog to improve my writing
2. I write in this blog to remember what I was thinking about at the time

That's it. Everything else is icing on the cake. I am not drawn to Facebook or Twitter because I'm not looking to have a bunch of people see what I'm posting. The Times article said that young people are abandoning blogging to post on Facebook and Twitter because they don't want to take the time to compose a more lengthy article for a blog. Also, it's easier to just pop over to Facebook or Twitter and post something quickly and then move on to something else. And many people want to use those media as ways to socialize and keep up with friends. Well, I don't have that many friends and I'm certainly not young so I guess I'll stick with blogging.

This is a chance to mention a terrific book titled If You Want to Write by Brenda Ueland. While it was first published in 1938, it is well worth reading today. It has been updated and the version I have (pictured above and found here - the 10th edition) was published in 1997. There is a newer version here. It doesn't tell you how to write it just tells you - write! It gets you excited about writing. It tells you why you should write. And as I said about three and a half years ago, "The best way to be a writer is to be a writer." Ms Ueland points out that there are far too many people telling you not to write. You are not good enough to write. You have nothing to say and what you have to say has been said before. You have to prepare before you can be a writer. None of that is true. I am not saying that you should not learn from other people and I am not saying that writing cannot be taught. But I think it is more a matter of being taught to write better. We all know how to write - at least at the grade school level. What we need to learn is how to write better. That's where I think the longer form of blog writing does this better than the short writing style of other mediums.

So, now this is written down and I can come back to it years from now to see what I was thinking today. And that's all the motivation I need.