Blogging: Sexy or Old School?

I am intrigued by an article on The New York Times that highlights the younger generation as having drifted to social media like Twitter and Facebook for sharing notes or videos rather than publishing it on their blogs. The title of the article is Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter, published not long ago (21/Feb). The story talks about the declining trend among young Americans to use blog, citing that it is now easier to find audience through Twitter or Facebook. As for the wider population who used to blog but now are long into hiatus, being too busy is one of the primary reasons as well as lack of enthusiasm because visitors hardly ever come. Others simply praise the social networking sites for allowing them to keep in touch with friends and families and that serves as a viable alternative to blogging.

Needless to say, the article prompts discussions among the netizens. One notable insight came from none other than Matt Mullenweg, founder of Automattic and developer of WordPress. In his post Blogging Drift, Matt cites that blogging is not a new thing anymore and that people, at some point, would realize that what they want to say would not fit into 140 characters on Twitter or are simply too important to put on Facebook where you do not have as greater flexibility as you would in your own virtual home.

I agree with Matt so far because we are probably in the same age so it is easier to understand his thoughts. But we are missing a good point here: the article focuses on young generations that would most probably have different social environment and, thus, would see it from a different angle. Perhaps they do think that Facebook or Twitter is easier for publishing their expressions and that they find wider audience there. Blogging, as solid as they have come, might be a thing of the past.

Therefore I decide to take this matter into my own hands and conduct a couple of interviews with:

1. A blogger, age less than 21, who started blogging not longer than 2 years ago

2. A former blogger, age less than 21, who started blogging earlier but quit not longer than a year ago

*General criteria: Indonesian speaker who speaks and writes Indonesian. Malaysian speaker is welcome as well.

I would set 10 interview questions that will be slightly tailored to their current blogging state. The interview process will be conducted personally but the results will be published online. I would also seek permission to publish their online identities without revealing personal details.

I welcome any assistance from you to recommend me any of two types of people above. This interview is conducted ‘for the sake of knowledge’, thus provides no material benefits. 😀

Thank you for your kind attention.

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Image taken from: digitaltrends.com