Blogs- The thing of the past??

I just finished watching Julie and Julia. Largely inspired by the movie, I decided to quickly write a post. Julie hated her job from day one and took up blogging as a hobby. She managed to write about her passion (cooking in this context) and ensured that she would go to sleep peacefully each day. Along similar lines, I took up blogging way back in 2005 to write about my interests and see how I could convey my thoughts to my readers. When I started writing, I had a very narcissistic theme to my posts. In other words it was a poor man’s Facebook without the dynamic interface and the sleazy status messages. I was not constrained by 140 characters or anything like that 4 years back. It would contain in-depth analysis of the 140 character thoughts I had.  My goal was to ensure that people could get to know me better and I could end up having interesting discussions over this amazing network called the internet. My posts predominantly consisted of personal incidents and events that had an impact in my life. I had interesting comments and faithful people who actually followed me (in a non twitterusque manner). I got to know new people and I also got a chance to gain entry to a leading girl’s college in Chennai. What more can one expect out of a blog?

I enjoyed writing and I did it out of sheer passion. Many of my friends started blogging and the interest fizzled out pretty soon for most of them. After 5 years, I am so glad I am still writing. On the other hand, the genres of my posts have changed significantly. I can attribute it primarily to the nature of blogs I read and those that are driven by the intent of making money. I rarely write personalized posts. Currently blogs have content that rarely beguile readers. Blogging has become a profession by itself and most people end up leveraging the concept of Crowdsourcing to make a living. Bloggers look to make money in all possible ways. I am personally against commercializing the medium of blogging. It was designed to pen down one’s thoughts and get opinions from people. Currently, on the excuse of connecting with their fans, blogs are used by celebrities and business honchos to make money. I think it only aggravates controversy.

In a nut shell, blogging will fade soon. It will be swept away by something shorter and smarter.  Even if the platform stays, bloggers will fade. Everything has become short and easy. Everyone reads through RSS feeds (so do I). People do not have time to read more than 140 characters. Links have become shorter. People want everything on their mobile. I am hoping the above predictions are wrong. Only time can tell. I hope to be more frequent. For movie and food lovers, please watch Julie and Julia.

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