It’s bad enough that society is already suffering from MDD (Media Deficit Disorder) …. a modern day, technology-led version of ADD. We can’t seem to do any one particular task well anymore, because we’re so busy juggling multiple things at the same time. Our attention spans have shrunk to the size of a newt. We can’t even seem to hold a thought consistently without drifting… what was I saying again?
Now along comes Twitter, which totally reduces our collective thought leadership to 140 characters or less and in doing so, belittles and minimizes every big thought into a punch line or social limerick. It’s premature articulation if you ask me and it’s very unsatisfying. Even with products like Twerbose (seems like it was made for me) which tries to cheat on Twitter’s size limitations by linking to a (gasp) blog post of sorts, the problem still remains and isn’t going away anytime soon.
Amidst the Twitterfication of our lives, I’ve noticed a disturbing trend developing. Blogs are starting to fade into oblivion. OK, maybe it’s not *that* bad, but it’s a fade nonetheless. As someone who blogs, podcasts and has a video show, I can attest first hand that the leap from blogs to audio to video is like crossing a chasm …. the level of difficulty, complexity and commensurate time investment grows exponentially with each step up to a richer form of communication, characterized by the adoption of additional senses and skills. But if this is in fact true, why am I (and many others like me) struggling to post as prolifically (quantity) and substantially (quality) as I once did?
If blogging is so easy, why are so many of the Web’s legends in their own minds on a blogging downward spiral?
The other day I wrote a simple post about the launch of one our client’s iPhone Apps. It took me about 45 minutes to post a simple multi-paragraph overview of the product, containing several links and 1 or 2 images.
“When did blogging become such a laborious and time-consuming task,” I asked myself as I painstakingly filled out the appropriate categories for my post, verified the desired time stamp for my post to hit, entered the relevant keywords and Technorati tags and previewed the post before hitting the publish button?
And then, as if a little tweeting bird whispered the answer into my ear, it hit me: The enemy is Twitter.
Over the past 3 years, Twitter has caused me to become increasing jittery, scattered and hyperactive. Twitter has turned everything into an elevator pitch. It has marginalized and trivialized everything profound in2 @n abbrv’d #tagline.
Twitter is to blame for my poor responsiveness on email as well. I once used to type long letters on e-mail. I would take the time to read every word from every e-mail sent to me. And now I barely do either. In fact, the number of unread e-mails in my in-box grows by the day.
Twitter is to blame. I’m not sure why, but why not? It’s better than blaming myself, right?
In all seriousness, there has been a marked shift from blogging to “micro”-blogging and I wonder what we’re sacrificing in the process. I recently spoke with a colleague (Grant), who pushed back smartly by giving me a history lesson; comparing Twitter to Poetry and how society once shunned and chastised this short-form content as being nothing more than superficial eye-candy rhymes that drove us further and further away from the “Great American Novel”. He made a good point.
We mock what we don’t understand
We belittle what we have no reference point for
We criticize what seems foreign to us
I guess I have a problem with the idea that Twitter is comparable to blogging at all. Whereas Twitter is all about living in “the now”, blogging rides the wave of the long tail. Whereas Twitter is about concentrated real time conversation, blogging is about dialogue that is both distributed and extended. Perhaps the biggest problem is that Twitter has almost become an alternative to blogging and in doing so, sets up a confrontational “versus” zero sum choice, when in reality is simply has to be an “AND”.
Perhaps the real issue with the 45-minute-blog-post-that-should-have-taken-me-5 was that I was too busy tweeting at the same time, distracted every 30 seconds with a familiar Tweetdeck chirp that has since put the AOL “You’ve got mail” dude out of business.
I guess we’re a little too quick to cast doubt and blame the way of new ideas, innovations and technologies which we perceive to distract us through disrupting our routines, norms and the status quo of life, when in reality all we need to do is just get on with it, using our common sense and figure out how to incorporate new technology in an additive and complementary fashion versus a cannibalistic one.
So perhaps I need to turn the blame inwards, along with my lack of self-discipline, self-control and inability to just turn off the friggen Internets every once in a while. Or maybe it’s a good sign that all those prolific bloggers who are blogging less these days, are doing so not because they’re tweeting more, but because they’re too busy doing REAL work for a change. Not a bad thing at all.
I’d like to leave you with a Twimerick:
“How many failed whales constitute a school?”
Said a learned owl to a suspicious mule.
“I don’t want to chat,”
said the mule with an @
And ended up looking like a tool.
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Surely there is room for both, we use twitter to point clients to our blogs, new pages and pr release and other points of interests so I see Blogs and Twitter working together. Ive always seen blogs as a bit of ranting platform. If Google didnt pay much credence to blogs how many people would actually reply to blogs? however on this subject I look forward to the replies because it does effect our business, you know when people like Sky sports say follow us on twitter you ignore twitter at your peril
I thought about this the other day as Facebook launched their vanity URL feature and the mad gold rush was afoot. These social tools are fun and great to use on a daily basis but they all don’t last forever. Yes, Twitter is not going to last forever, sorry.
What can though is your blog. It’s a platform where you can feel pretty confident that it won’t go anywhere (unless you don’t pay your hosting provider). It’s the platform where we’ve built a community of loyal readers, not for 140 characters worth, but for a thought-provoking multi-paragraphed post that has us chewing on our own thoughts and subsequent post.
That’s where the real growth occurs IMO. Where we, as hyper-connected conversationalists, can showcase are full thoughts and ideas, for the world to see & read…and also not having to wait until the fail whale is gone or servers are back up for these other social platforms.
With our blogs, at least we have a say as to how long it will stay alive in this online world.
Joe, I like this post. I’ve been struggling withTwitter myself (http://reichcomm.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/05/i-wrote-this-post-more-than-a-week-ago-but-hesitated-putting-it-up-i-know-some-of-my-readers-and-online-friends-swear-by-tw.html), giving it a try because of all the buzz and because some blogging friends swear by it.
I can see the benefits of Twitter, but I think they may be outweighed for many people by the negatives — the biggest being it’s an incredible time-drain. And I don’t need to know everytime someone I follow is having a cup of coffee or on their way out to the deli.
I’ve been noticing a drop-off in blogging for while — before Twitter became the in thing. Blogging requires thought and time and the ability to put words together in more than 140-character sequences.
The blog drop-off is probably a normal housecleaning of those who are serious and have something to say and others who saw it simply as a new fun thing. Having fewer blogs or fewer posts isn’t at all bad, if what’s left has real value.
I really liked this post – and I, too, have been watching as the world – and our collective attention span – has become shorter and shorter, which saddens me.
) Tara Meyer-Robson
While there is a wonderful place for Twitter – I personally love it and have found great info on it – I also know the great pleasure of reading an incredible book, and then savoring it for a while as I ponder it.
There will be no time that any tweet will be as rich and inspiring as, say, Whitman’s Leaves of Grass or, my most recent delightful find, Jasper Fforde’s “Tuesday Next” series.
As an author myself – and one who works on crafting the best words to create the very best book – it is definitely something that I think about a lot.
Thanks for the interesting post today – keep up the great work!
Great post that articulates (in more than 140 characters) something I have been struggling with since I started Tweeting. IMHO, there is a DIRECT correlation to the uptake of Twitter and the reduction in blog posts. I Tweet, therefore my blog suffers. I like Twitter, but I agree it’s dangerous to reduce all thoughts to a mere sentence or two. Thanks for inspiring me to do better. And to (macro)blog more.
Well I blog and I tweet and I find the two serve completely different purposes. They are more synergetic that competitive. My Twitter promotes my latest blog post and my blog allows people to follow me on Twitter.
Twitter is by no means a replacement for a blog. How can you present a detailed argument or article in 140 characters? You can’t. I certainly wouldn’t call Twitter the enemy. It opens my eyes (and web browser) to loads of different sites/articles/news every day. I found this blog through a Twitter post. The irony?
I do however agree that Twitter does dumb things down to a certain extent. And Tweetdeck certainly is distracting!
Ahh, this age of meta-twittering… frankly, it’s exhausting
Someone rambled on about how “only 10 % of social media users understand Twitter” and that that should say something about the quality of Twitter as a tool…
I think you’re on to something – blame yourself
We should all blame ourselves for being stupid and ignorant and not stating the purpose of why we do stuff before we do it.
Someone tweeted the link to your post – that’s why I use twitter – instant RSS from all over.
The biggest reason I don’t think blogging is threatened by Twitter – it’s blog post marketing in 140 characters.
People who tweet “oh, just saw a bird” could maybe use a purpose in life – and I thank GOD for Twitter keeping those guys from blogging!
I am exploring ways of using Twitter alongside blogging – aggressively playing one off the other to demand accountability from bureaucrats such as insurance CEOs. If an insurance company, or any other traditional command-and-control entity, ventures onto Twitter, insensitivity to consumers is easily exposed by anyone who can effectively express a legitimate complaint. Insurance CEO are naturally easy targets.
In the future, those who can hold an audience’s attention will be the most effective in promoting improvements in society. You know what this means?
English majors will run the nation. Now that’s scary.
D. Kellus Pruitt aka, “Proots”
All things are relative, I guess. There’s pressure on bloggers to “keep it short!” As a result, I find lots of blog posts to be very shallow. Often, they just raise a question (that had already been raised) and leave it at that with no real exploration of the issues.
Perhaps the real reason that blogging is slowing down is a growing realization of the nugget of truth to be found in the line “Everything has already been said…just not everyone has said it yet.”
I agree that keeping up with twitter, blogging, Facebook and Linkedin is a struggle. I work full time and it can most certainly be consuming! More tools are coming out that sync some of these together for ease of maintenance…but not enough or fast enough. I do think Twitter has been an awesome tool to connect me with those of interest around me. I wouldn’t want to give any of them up…but working full time AND trying to keep up…I need a nap!
The funny thing is this isn’t really even a post per se. Certainly if you look at the average length of what is considered to be a “blog post” versus “magazine article” (the original purpose of this piece)
Even though I wrote it somewhat tongue in cheek in an irreverent and self-deprecating manner, it is filled with several intriguing thoughts and very real concerns.
I’m glad it’s resonating with so many people
Twitter is like a breath of fresh air on the Social Media scene. I have been on it for just a few weeks now and I have met several interesting people. It is a platform to network with people you would like to meet in real life.
KZ
I think Joe never got over the fact he was so busy talking about Second Life that he missed the beginning of the Twitter bandwagon.
Good stuff here.
Having been at this blogging thing for 3 years and at Twitter for under 2, I recently found my own “balance” with the two. And, oddly, the last couple months I’ve written some of the longest blog posts ever (ha!)
I’ve honestly found why I like each independently and how they complement one another–but most of the commenting on my posts happens on Twitter, which is just fine. But I have to say, for a solid 6 months there my blog was not getting the ‘love’ it should have as I was finding my footing on Twitter.
I don’t think blogs will die. Just like I don’t think books, networks or radio will die. But I do think people will find what fits them… just like they find what fits them on TV, on the radio and so forth. We allot our time to that which brings us value, both professionally and personally. Simple as that, really.
PS: I should also note that I have different communities on Twitter than on blogs, there is some crossover but that’s been a huge benefit to using both platforms.
Joseph – your thoughts have got us all talking. Even on Twitter. Isn’t that proof that both can work for you together?
And the fact that we comment at all suggests a well-reasoned piece of more than 140 characters is still appealing to us. I feel like I’m signing a petition here! Keep up the good work and keep blogging!
If Twitter helps to siphon away those bloggers whose lack of talent makes them annoying wherever they’re writing, than thank you Twitter!
The reality is that Twitter makes it easier for good bloggers to be discovered and appreciated because it’s a communication accelerator. I read your post today because someone Tweeted it.
Blogging, like Public Radio, will never go away because it’s all about thoughtful conversations with people who actually understand an idea with some complexity. While Twitter for so many is the moron talking on their cell while negotiating rush hour traffic.
I for one still love blogging. What was the reason to blog in the first place? It would be because it is more of a journal, and I still get a kick out of reading something I wrote a couple of years ago.
I do not want to look back on a tweet 2 years ago that had a one liner saying I went to work. Or even multiple tweets just to capture the events of the whole day, because of the word constraints.
Emails and instant messaging/ text messaging are the ones to blame for simplifying all words, generally to help you avoid typing too much, and to make you sound relevant.
For me Twitter acts as a filtering system from which I can select from multiple sources of information and determine whether what is being posted is worth a good read. The short 140-character summaries serve the same purpose that an abstract might serve on a lengthy research report. I evaluate the information and decide whether I will find value by clicking through to access the extensive long-form thought.
Before I utilized Twitter, Google was my go-to source for scouring information, most of the time generating search results that led to editorials, news stories, and published information. While that’s all and good, now I can use Twitter to access information from thought-leaders, industry executives, CEOs, people you would normally pay good money to see speak at a conference or trade show.
We use it to get people to our blog – We’re a small wine shop, but we’re doing a lot on Facebook & Twitter – we just launched a promotion for someone to win a B&B Dream Vacation along the Blue Ridge Parkway yesterday to see how very small “mom & pops” can use social media to get the sort of results that the big guys like Queensland and Goode are doing. We’ll see if people are as competitive to get a vacation as they are to get a job. More info here: http://whyineedabreak.ning.com
I mostly agree with CK (better @CKsays…) opinion.
More, I think that Twitter is a great amplifier for blogs: most of the people uses it to spread blog posts. That’s why I believe that the two can go along together.
Then you may, one day, just share an opinion and use Twitter, and another day articulate in a longer post and use the blog.
Please don’t stop blogging. This was so entertaining! And when you figure out how to stop the Twitter addiction that steals time and creative energy from your blog and other writing, please let me know! (My name is Shelley and I am a Twitterholic.)
The Quick is the Enemy of The Good.
Or something very much like that. Consider the following:
Craigslist drives out classifieds.
Blogs drive out editorials.
Forums drive out face-to-face debate.
Emotional reaction drives out reasoned argument.
Quick is winning in our society, and that can’t be a good thing.
Sorry but isn’t this blatantly obvious? And as for “legends in their own mind” I take it you are referring to yourself?
I wish Twitter would kill Jaffe’s blog.
I follow your posts for a long time and should tell that your articles always prove to be of a high value and quality for readers.