Are Blogs a Thing of the Past?

Chronicles of an Anthropology Nerd originated back in January of 2011, under the title of “Bones, Buried Treasures, and Beliefs,” and acted as a platform for me to showcase my knowledge and interests from my undergrad. Since the creation of my blog, it has blossomed beyond that, taking into account my current Grad School work, my writing, and even my regular nerdy interests.

I’ve gained a great following of smart, fun readers who really further the discussions that I pose with my writing. I enjoy getting my thoughts out into words and hearing what you all think of those thoughts. Through this blog I was able to market my books, short stories, and other writings. It is a wonderful tool to keep you all up-to-date with what is going on in my head on both on an anthropological level and a personal one.

All that being said, it seems as though the steam is wearing off, not just for my blog, but for all blogs. We’ve moved into an age where pictures and videos are much more appealing than words. The normal social media user doesn’t want to read paragraphs of text; they want a short description, an eye-catching image, and sometimes a link to that story to read further if they so choose. Look at twitter; tweets cap out at a max of 140 characters. On Instagram you don’t even need words; you can tell stories with pictures. Facebook allows you to write all you want and attach pictures and videos but a lot of users don’t read the entirety of user’s posts. Hell there’s even an internet saying “tl;dr” which means “too long; didn’t read.” This is used to respond to excessively long posts and then offer your opinion.

The irony of using my blog to complain about this is not lost on me. I know that what I have described above doesn’t apply to everyone. There are still many of you out there who read blogs and continue to respond and carry on discussions. It’s my hope that that will continue, but I realize that I have to change with the time as well. I use twitter (@TheGingerNerd) and Instagram (@the_ginger_nerd) to stay in contact with those they may not read my blog and also with those who do.

So to my readers, thank you all for sticking by me and continuing to engage in thought-provoking dialogue. I will continue to write about my interests even if there’s only a few people who continue to read my blog.