Is Blogging in decline?

Apr 13, 2007 by drsavi

It was recently suggested that the number of active Blogs maybe shrinking. Actually Gartner Research group did not suggest this in such a graphical way. They (Gartner research) suggested the reduction in number of Bloggers will persist and a peak related to numbers and time does exist.

NB If we analyse my post’s question a little more deeply, the question I’m asking is not only about the number of Blogs available in terms of growing or declining but the ability of the Blogosphere to work effectively or with any real worth. Better still, to ‘act’ as a collective mechanism to share thoughts and make change happen.

The epitaphs about Blogging appear to have started in the US at the end of Feb?07, i.e: Suggestions were being made in the US press about the decline in the Blogging phenomena. Last Sunday a UK national paper also suggested that Blogging could be in decline for a number of reasons:

1. Bloggers / writers block
2. No time to write an online diary

I wonder if the suggested decline may also be due to other reasons:

* Not enough ghost writers!
* Nothing to say
* Bloggers wondering if anyone is reading
* Bloggers unaware of the power of connecting and shared thought
* Loss of faith by PR agencies of the value of Blogs
* Celebrity Bloggers discarding the fad ownership of a Blog
* The cost of running and interlinking as part of a webstrategy
* Too much hassle to keep it up-to-date
* Other forms of self expression appearing to be more tempting, for example, using some other mode but one that is more disturbingly open, revealing and sometimes explicit!
* People have ?run out of steam? with this fad.
* Media moguls in fear of the power of personal view-points

When surfing the Internet, yes there are trails and ghost blogs from yesteryear.

There is one grave danger. If the rumours of the increasing number of ghost Blogs is to be believed then I hope that we do not end-up with an environment of A, B and C list of Bloggers. I?ve even read about the suggestion that there are some Bloggers (ace writers) who no matter how hard they try, simply cannot get enough traffic or visitors? Conversely, I?ve heard of some political Bloggers yielding handsome / healthy monthly earnings through Google Adsense click-through?s?

Returning to the key question, Blogging needs to not be considered as a singularity. Instead, as connected thought streams/ developing social thought. Therefore, the less brain cells, the less the power to drive change or suggested action.

The bottom-line is that keeping a Blog is a form of self-expression ? a way of hopefully declaring an opinion, encouraging debate in a ?free world?. The question is who makes it free? Is it the mechanics of the Internet or the natural laws of chaos that attract and bring about a connected world?

Blogging will never die but it may never be the same…

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