A close friend of mine recently asked for my thoughts on the future of blogging and blogs. In fact, we had quite an interesting and in-depth conversation, because up until now, I never really thought about; What if someday blogging or blogs ceased to exist?
Well, in all honesty, if blogging was to go away, it wouldn't be the end of the world as such. But we don't have to worry just yet, as I doubt that blogs will be going out of fashion any time soon.
But, me being curious and all, I did take a moment to think about 'the future of blogging'. I found myself making some notes, in fact, and here's what I came up with - I just thought I'd share it with you:
The short answer is that I believe blogging has a strong future ahead. But that future depends on several big factors.
Let me break it down real quick.
Let's talk about the technology side, particularly in software.
Tech startups all over the world are always striving to come out with "the latest thing." If it's not the latest app, it's the newest tool, software, and so on. All these 'latest things' are designed to essentially make our lives easier, I guess. And in the case, I'm making, especially when it comes to creating and consuming content online.
So far, nothing that I can think of has been significant enough to impact blogs, or at least, to replace them. I could be wrong.
Yes, social media has changed the way we communicate, and the way we bring awareness about a cause or brand or whatever. And the way we share content online, but not enough to entirely replace blogs.
Some people, however, claim this to be different and prefer social media to blogs. That's OK, each to their own, right?
But in fact, social media complements blogs in a great way. You'll know this too well if you're a blogger yourself.
So, on that thought, I think the future of blogs as a platform will be around for a very long time. Unless, of course, someone comes up with the next big thing that has the potential to replace blogs or even websites altogether. But even so, that could take some time to happen, propagate, and everything else.
There was thought once that apps could replace websites. That hasn't happened, and I don't think it will ever happen, simply because it is not practical.
Now, technology, of course, affects user behavior. As I mentioned earlier, improved technology is designed to make all our lives easier, especially in the software field.
Look at videos and podcasts, for example; These aren't new technology, I know, but these mediums have had a profound effect on how we consume and use the content online over recent years.
So, our behavior has changed over the years, slightly. Rather than sit down and devote 15 minutes of our time reading a 6,000-word blog post, we're happy to listen to a (podcast) or watch a video tutorial instead. It requires less effort on our part, we can also do other things at the same time (at least when listening to audion content), and is far more enjoyable in a sense.
I think, for the most part, the future of blogs and blogging is perfectly safe. People will always need blogs. And the best part of it all is that we can integrate other forms of content mediums into our blog posts—mediums such as videos, that has the potential to boost conversions by 80%. And podcasts, as well as visual content, such as photos, slide presentations, infographics, etc. can all be embedded into blog posts.
Here's an interesting statistic to end this post -
Blogs have been rated as the 5th most trustworthy source for gathering online information - Source
So, if you're blogging right now, keep doing what you do best. If you're thinking about starting a blog, then go fo it. Check out this page to get started!
What are your thoughts on the future of blogging? Leave me a comment below or share this post along with your thoughts on social media.
