Why Blogging Is NOT Dying

Last year, I wrote a post titled, "Is Blogging Dying?" In it, I explored why other social media forms, like Facebook and Twitter, were beginning to hold more of an appeal to me than blogs.

A year later, things have changed.

I joined Twitter (reluctantly) and have connected with a lot of new people that way, mostly those that are into World War II history, some writers, and literary agents. It's an interesting format, but not one that I really enjoy.

Same with Facebook. I like to stay updated on my family and friends, but more and more, it's just become...boring. I tend to scroll through my newsfeed fairly fast in the morning and really don't stop to read a lot of the memes being posted or quotes or what have you. I'd much rather read someone's status update than look at anything else.

I used to enjoy the rapid-fire response you get on Facebook, and I admit to irrational glee when someone retweets one of my Tweets or responds to me (my favorite response so far is from a guitar player for the band, Shinedown. I tweeted a picture that my daughter drew of him to his Twitter account and he responded. Yes, we saved his tweet and yes, it's hanging on my daughter's wall). I like to follow certain celebrities, too. (Russell Crowe is a favorite).

The bass player from Shinedown, Eric Bass, at the concert my daughter and I went to in March. He re-tweeted one of my Tweets.

But there isn't a lot of depth to Twitter. You can't settle in for a nice, long post, one that will really get to the heart of a subject and explore all its many facets.

I miss that.

So today, after looking at my FB and Twitter feeds, I closed the tabs and went to my blog, eager to dig my mind into something more substantial via my blogroll. I haven't been disappointed. There are still a lot of really good blogs out there that I thoroughly enjoy, and I always like finding more.

It's strange how social media is such a huge component of our lives, but I find that its sheen has faded for me. I'd rather be on Pinterest or my blog than either Twitter or FB. There are times when I don't want to be "connected." I don't know where we got this notion that we have to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, update our FB and Twitter statuses, and be only a text or phone call away from anyone and everyone.

But as I am a writer and I've been blogging since 2005, I have no intentions of stopping.

Despite the craze of Twitter and FB, I've decided that there IS a place for the blogging medium. No, blogging is not dying. I think people want a slower, more thoughtful way of looking at the world via a few well-written paragraphs rather than 140 characters or less.

No, I won't abandon Twitter or Facebook (I particularly like the Writer Unboxed community on FB), but I find myself wanting to go to my Twitter and FB pages less and less. Maybe it's the historian in me, or maybe I'm just hopelessly old-fashioned. Probably both.

While I don't blog as much as I used to, that may change. I'm finding I crave it more. For one, I can learn a lot more about a person through their blog than I can scrolling through 5,000 of their Tweets (and that's one thing about Twitter I really don't like - how some people post a tweet a minute for ten minutes sometimes. Annoying).

What's your take on social media? Is your enthusiasm for it still strong? Are certain social media sites more beneficial to you than others?

Reminder: Don't forget! I'm holding a Where I Write blog carnival and you are invited to participate! Details HERE.