Blogging Killed by 140-Character Monster?
By Frank Reed. Filed in Social Media Marketing |Tags: blogging, Facebook, microblogging, twitter
Image by Salon de Maria via Flickr
by Frank Reed
Andy Serwer is the managing editor over at Fortune magazine. Now, so you are aware I have a bias toward Fortune because I think that is just a good magazine. Simplistic? Yes, but I need it that way. In fact, that’s what Andy is alluding to in his Captain’s Blog post from May 20. He suggests that we communicate so much that maybe blogging is going to be replaced by Facebook and Twitter. I agree to a degree.
Serwer postulates that maybe blogging is too slow and clunky. After journalism was pronounced dead due to blogging now it may be time to pronounce blogging dead due to Twitter and Facebook and the new “140 character or less” culture. I was part of the “sound bite” generation that was introduced to MTV and the shortening of attention spans to a mere 30 seconds or so. Giving anything 30 seconds or more in today’s world is the equivalent of reading War and Peace “back in the day.”
So is blogging going the way of the dinosaur? Is it too much to ask for someone to sit through 250-600 words? (Or more in some cases–many more words with me because I can’t seem to explain something unless it is battered, bleeding and near death, but that’s for another day.)
Here’s my take. The introduction of social media in short bursts has actually created more interest in blogging in some ways. It also, however, has fostered less tolerance. In other words, bad blogs and posts don’t stand up anymore (thankfully although that may hurt me a bit). A very well respected blogger in the Internet space, Lee Odden responded to me on Twitter today as follows
@FrankReed I agree, blogs are the social thing that Tweets and FB
content points to. However, many are blogging less, that’s for sure
So maybe the 140 character limit on conversations that is becoming de rigueur is helping to simply separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak. Maybe less blogging is simply due to the fact that it is easier to ‘”relate” to someone with 140 characters vs. putting together a cohesive line of thinking in a post.
As for you “real journalists,” I suspect you are gagging at that last statement, since most bloggers, like myself, aren’t going to put together a newspaper-length report any time soon. No reason to, really. There are newspapers for that. Well, at least for now there are but don’t blink because the daily paper concept is quickly fading away.
I don’t think blogging is dying, but I do think it is evolving. Business evolution is quick to kill off the ineffective, until of course it is fashionable to bring it back. Blogging is very safe for now because it will attract the people that really want it. Others that can’t sit through a 15-second commercial without squirming can delude themselves that they are “relating” with and learning from others of their ilk in the fast-paced shallow pool of Twitter, Facebook and others.
There is a place for all of it. The one reality is though that no one is capable of doing all of it. We are at the point where we need to decide how we will use our time. Whether you tweet or blog or whatever, we all have one thing in common; we are only human. While we hate to admit it we all have limits. What are yours? Please let us know in 140 characters or less because there is so much to do.
Saturday, May 23rd 2009 at 10:16 pm |
I don’t think anybody expected Twitter to be as popular as it is today. It’s kind of said for the blog poster, but as the internet is ever changing, I think it’s too late to kill the blog post.
Monday, May 25th 2009 at 3:54 pm |
I agree with you Frank. I think blogs are really important. I blog for this drug rehab center and by doing that I promote that center.
Tuesday, May 26th 2009 at 8:17 am |
I do wish sometimes that twitter would allow a bit more then only 140 characters. Never the less, twitter is very popular and only seems to be picking up pace.
David Batchelor
LifePath Unlimited
Liberty League
Tuesday, May 26th 2009 at 8:12 pm |
Some one epxplain to me what is twitter, please.
Tuesday, May 26th 2009 at 8:43 pm |
Twitter is fun and new…. However Twitter also gets quite boring just as fast. I do not see how this can survive… Unless there is something useful tied to it. I often wonder (as I am leaving a store) how could I inform this salespersons boss how good/bad they were… Hmmmm… In comes Twitter…@HomeDepot – Your sales man was……
Then maybe there can be some value behind the hype
My friends call me Lingerie Lori and you of course may do the same.
Tuesday, May 26th 2009 at 8:55 pm |
I think twitter can be helpful to blogs actually as you can tweet that you have a new blog post. I get what your saying though, we’re in a A.D.D. generation.
Wednesday, May 27th 2009 at 9:55 am |
i don’t think twitter will be popular as orkut or something social networking site i asked few non it friends they said what is twitter and started them explaining so it takes time to get popularized
Wednesday, May 27th 2009 at 12:32 pm |
Twitter is a great tool for me… especially if I have new posts, I can just tweet tweet them anytime!
Wednesday, May 27th 2009 at 8:14 pm |
I have been asking what is twitter for a long time and no one told me what it was. Can someone please explain to me
Wednesday, May 27th 2009 at 11:31 pm |
I just wanna add the following:
Twitter killed the Blogger Star.
Thursday, May 28th 2009 at 12:39 pm |
I think we are now in Web 2.1. 2.0 had MySpace (who still uses it?) and of course the blog. But now we have a different set of use; plus the sponsered ads are more local based as well. The ’90s Internet (do we still capitalize the I?) looks SO ancient now in design; it’s almost retro now!
Thursday, May 28th 2009 at 5:44 pm |
I think there is room for both. Some topics can’t be covered properly in 140 characters.
Friday, May 29th 2009 at 12:14 am |
what is Twitter?
I have been wondering what it is all about for a long time.
What’s the big deal anyways?
Saturday, May 30th 2009 at 2:15 am |
this just goes to show you that enough people suffer from A.D.D. that they cannot even keep up a simple blog instead they opt for the easy way out…twitter.
Monday, June 1st 2009 at 2:53 pm |
we need more than 140 characters to support our topics, or else it will end up a boring one.
Wednesday, June 10th 2009 at 12:29 pm |
Well I don’t think Twitter is going to kill blogging.In blogs you can write any articles or posts as long as you want.Blogs can be considered as
websites for free.Blogs have different layouts and structures, and navigation systems whereas Twitter is a social media where you write short snippets or let your friends know what you are upto in the coming times.
Thanks