Remember the good old days when people were writing about the death of blogging thanks to social media tools? When they wrote, rather prolifically, about how Google Plus, Tumblr, LinkedIn’s Pulse, Facebook’s Notes, Medium and a whole bunch of other platforms were just going to kill our own ability to have a personal Web Journal of sorts where we would be able to host our own thoughts, have conversations, learn and overall build, over time, strong online communities about topics we were all passionate about and that we would keep on writing about for years to come? Well, 21 years later, blogging is still alive and kicking, thank you very much! And on October 10th, 2015, I just made it through my 10th year blogiversary for https://elsua.net. Who knew… The Death of Blogging? Hummm, I don’t think so!
Thing is this is not the first time I write about this very same topic, and I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last one either. It’s also not the first time I share across the many benefits as to why blogging still rules in the social / digital tools extensive landscape. But what I find the most baffling from it all is while a few people keep claiming that it’s now a dead medium for online publishing and personal journaling several other dozens more keep talking, and writing extensively, about the many perks behind having your own blog, whether it’s a corporate blog or not. The articles with dozens and dozens of tips can get quite overwhelming, but then again I keep getting dragged into reading through all of those listicles, because, you know, we are always going to be drawn upon them, whether we like it or not, so we better try to enjoy them and move on, don’t you think? Phew! That linking exercise I just did above to curated blog posts I have enjoyed in the last few months alone! has just been exhausting! Oh, don’t worry, I don’t expect you to go through all of them. It’ was just an opportunity for me to highlight how blogging is alive and kicking if just a sample of the articles linked above contained hundreds of different blogging tips, whether you are a beginner, intermediate or an advanced blogger. Mind you, if you are starting your own blog, or think you could go and learn some new tricks, put some time aside to go through some of those. I can recommend reading through them to learn a new trick or two. I did.
Anyway, see how silly the whole argument about the death of blogging really is? Here we are, 2015, and we are still talking about it. Yet, we keep on blogging. Regardless. And that’s a good thing, more than anything else because, if anything, blogging should be about just that: you writing along as an extension of your brain, of your thoughts and ideas you would want to share out there with the world. Just because you want to, not because of whatever other people may tell you otherwise. It’s about a unique opportunity, we all keep taking for granted, it seems, about having a voice (your voice!) and an opinion on a particular subject at your own place, that you care about and / or are really passionate about. Blogging, essentially, writing, is all about you. You are what you write. It’s a personal craft that takes years to master, if at all, and nothing, nor anyone, should be able to take that away from you. Ever. Don’t let them.
See? Writing in your blog on a more or regular basis can be both therapeutic and rather healthy, but perhaps, most importantly, cathartic and while you are all going to tell me you keep on writing on multiple different venues, i.e. social tools, with exactly that very same flair writing in the long from in your own blog where you reflect deeper on a particular topic of interest can well be a rather intimate and overall engaging activity of you yourself and your idea(s), before you allow the world to get a glimpse of them and do something about it.
David Weinberger (@dweinberger) put it brilliantly in this particular article under the thought-provoking title ‘Why Blogging Still Matters’:
‘But, we thought, the most important challenge blogging posed was to the idea of the self in self-expression. Blogging was more about connecting with others than about expressing ourselves. Truth, we thought, was more likely to live in webs of ideas and responses than in the mouth of any one individual braying from soapbox, whether that soapbox was The New York Times or a blogger read by five people. By linking and commenting, we were consciously building a social space for voices in conversation.’
To then continue with this other rather relevant quote:
‘We bloggers are still there, connecting, learning from one another, and speaking in our own flawed human voices’.
And that’s where I am myself, after 10 years of blogging in this blog, and although I have been blogging for nearly 13 years now in total plenty of other blogs I have had in the past have come and gone, whether on Intranets or not; and whether using various other different platforms for online publishing the thing is https://elsua.net still remains that special place I always call Home. A place, over the course of the years, I can always return to and be just my self:
‘[…] a place for the sound of the individual’s own flawed voice in open conversation with others, building something bigger than itself.’
Thank you very much for sticking around throughout all of these years, faithful readers of this blog, and for allowing me to show and share with you my special place, my blog, my home. Thank you for being an integral part of quite an amazing, yet unfinished, journey!
Welcome on board!
Happy blogiversary Luis!
Awww, thanks for dropping by, Euan, and for the kind wishes! Much much appreciated! Yes, it’s been quite a journey! Most definitely nothing to do with your as you have been blogging long before almost anyone out there, I am sure! But it’s quite a treat seeing https://www.elsua.net making the 10th year blogiversary and still alive and kicking! 😀 hehe
Again, much much appreciated, Euan, for the lovely wishes! Thanks!!
welcome home (again), Luis! Great post. I think I’ll share it internally and externally. 🙂 Onward!
Many many thanks, Maureen, for dropping by and for that lovely re-welcome! It’s greatly appreciated 😀 hehe Yes, it’s been quite a journey, indeed, but what an amazing one, right? Thanks a lot for spreading the message around and, like you mentioned above, #onwardsandforwards
Happy Blog-iversary, Luis.
October 8th was my 5 year mark on my Forbes blog too.
As they say, Keep on keeping on.
Hi Rawn, many thanks for the kind comments, and a happy blogiversary (On Forbes) for you, too! Although I know you have been blogging for much much longer than that! 😀 hehe Time flies when you are having fun, indeed, and here’s hoping to be celebrating the 20th blogiversary really soon! At the blink of an eye! 🙂
Thanks much, once again, my friend, for the lovely wishes and a big congrats to you, too! Well done! Here’s to plenty more to come along!
Very well-stated, Luis.
And thank goodness for blogging ! It’s how I met you.
Hiya, Jon! Thanks ever so much, my friend, for dropping by and for those lovely comments! It’s just too funny, but I keep reflecting how, over the course of the years, those folks who I have met via blogging have still remained great friends, both online AND offline, whereas with social networking tools like FB, LI, Twitter and the like things haven’t been much the same, I am afraid. I guess it shows why. Blogging is hard, it’s a tough job, it takes lots of great effort, energy and, overall, tons of time to nurture and foster lots of personal business relationships, but, boy, isn’t it totally worth it ?!?! 🙂
You bet it is! Thanks a lot, my dear friend, for being there all along! 😀
Thank you for sharing your thoughts for over a decade here, Luis. Way to go.
Hiya, Joachim! Yeah, I couldn’t believe it myself when I thought the 10th year blogiversary was on October 15th and it already happened on the 10th! It will be a tough date to forget, for sure!, as the 10th is one of my all time favourite numbers hehe
Many thanks for the words of encouragement and look forward to keep on keeping on, as Rawn mentioned above!
Much appreciated, once again, the lovely support, faithful readership and overall commenting over the years! Thank you, sincerely, for making this blogging journey a real treat!
Onwards! 😀 heh
Congrats, Luis! And good to see you’re back to blogging. I’m trying to do so as well.
Hiya Sam, thanks much for dropping by and for noticing! Much appreciated the kind wishes! Yeah, it was about time that I came back and I, too, look forward to seeing your own blog coming back! It’d be a good time with the conference months before year end coming along and being able to read some pretty amazing live blogging altogether!
Thanks a lot, my friend, once again, and bring that blog to life again, please 😀
Happy Blogiversary Luis
Your post fits nicely into a set of ideas I have brewing about the tensions I feel when I think about how I manage my personal sense-making.
I’m increasingly aware of tensions whenever I think about long-form writing and thinking – a whole blog post feels like a lot of pressure! 🙂 I think this is perhaps why I am feeling attracted to FedWiki – the ability to quickly bang together related thoughts on pages which are never “finished” feels more accessible somehow.
This is of course something in my mind rather than the tools themselves – there is nothing to stop any of us revisiting a blog post and revising it, but the tyranny of the timeline is sly…
The firehose is addictive – it makes us feel “in touch with the pulse” at the same time as it weakens our ability to pause and take stock. It’s the sucrose of the knowledge world 🙂 Hence the interest in your Twitter Great Unfollowing
Wow – I’ve just written the first draft of a blog post in a comment to your blog post – irony….
Hi Julian, thanks ever so much for the feedback and for the kind wishes! Yes, indeed, it’s been quite a journey, indeed, all of those years blogging away and while things may have slowed down a bit, I still keep coming back to it as an opportunity to pause and reflect on things happening around what I learn, work on or participate in.
There is just too much happening all around and why I appreciate to slow down a bit some times to reflect on how I’d want to make sense of what’s happening. This blog is like an extension of my brain, where I need to go and reflect on that sense making exercise you mentioned above and after having read your blog post on the topic (Highly recommended read) confirms I don’t seem to be the only one! Well done! Much enjoyed that blog post, for sure! 🙂
I think ‘snacking around’ is just as good as it serves the purpose of finding good ideas to pause and reflect on, because we all know where the ‘real’ conversation is: on the blogs. Now and for a good while still!
Many thanks again for dropping by and for the kind comments and look forward to the conversations, wherever they may well happen!
Hi Luis
happy blogiversary!
I thought I left a comment earlier about the ideas you had catalysed with this post – the comment seems to have vapourised but never mind, I’ve taken the comment and turned it into Breaking the ubiquity of stream mode 🙂
Hi Julian, the blog comment did go through in the first round, it just got trapped on my spam folder and had to approve it and just responded to it above with some additional thoughts. As well as I left another comment in your follow-up blog post reflecting on that personal transformation journey you have already embarked on for a good while and that you reflected upon quite nicely! Well done and many thanks again for the kind wishes!
Here’s to the next 10 years of blogging! 😀