Are blogs still a thing?
That question just popped up in my head while thinking about what name should I associate this blog with because apparently, most people are moving towards vlogs (video logs, video blogs) and podcast videos (or video podcasts?) which are much easier for others to consume. Is it because videos have a more significant psychological impact? I've noticed that people love watching multimedia content because it makes them feel like they are experiencing the creator's life. It almost creates some kind of delusion that they are involved in the journey and conversations of the content creator and the experience is instant, easily accessible without the "hard work" of reading.
The creator's motivation may varies, perhaps to share their adventures, thoughts, or expertise, provide an easily accessible form of education, grow their digital presence and credibility, or just randomly (maybe also strategically) create a wave of popularity which could always be monetized in some way. The trend continues more significantly, maybe because advertisement technologies and company marketing strategies are adapting, driving more people to seek their fortune and profit in the so-called content creation business. The fact that how the Web platform could be accessed and utilized much easily by everyone also adds to the complexity of this situation. Anyway, I hope that the real personality of someone is what defines their digital presence, not the other way around.
A quick search showed me that the word "blog" is some kind of an acronym for "web log" or "weblog". Then a further search told me that the word "log" in this sense denotes a quadrant of wood loaded to float upright in the water to determine or estimate the speed of a ship. Then, the estimated speed data are recorded in the ship's journal. So, I guess a blog is a record of a person's rate of change in their position, state, or stance, written conveniently on the World Wide Web. Regarding whether they are still a thing or not, well, after all, everything on the Web is just a sequence of zeroes and ones anyway.
I'll close this concise pilot blog with a portion of one of my favorite quotes from Pulp Fiction (1994)
Why do we feel it's necessary to yak about bullshit in order to be comfortable?