Why I Prefer Blogs

After years of trying to like Facebook and Twitter, I'm giving up. Perhaps I'm just an old fogie when it comes to the web, but I prefer blogs and aggregators like Techmeme. In contrast to my readership of blogs, I find myself rarely using Facebook, Twitter, or other AOL follow-ons. I say AOL because that's what these networks seem like to me: modern-day, social AOLs.

I like blogs better because the typical blog entry represents an intentional, edited, thought piece. Blogs have been called "light publications" because they are, essentially, a published article on a private web site. Think about what it takes to put a decent blog entry together: to start with, a person needs an idea worth reading. The author normally thinks through the arguments for hours or days before writing about them. Then, blog authors open their "add post" editor and present their thought piece in a coherent, accessible way. Most authors read through their posts to make changes and other edits before publishing them to their blog. Blog posts usually have embedded links to other pages, graphics to illustrate points, and comments for direct discussion on the topic of the post.

In contrast, a "publication" on Facebook or Twitter comprises a sentence or two. It's more positioned as a quick "thought about something" or " what I'm doing right now" than as a full argument or contribution to knowledge. They take very little thought, and many like them for this reason. An "author" can tweet or post to a wall in just a few moments where a full blog post would take 30+ minutes. It's easy to post to a social network on the run from a cell phone. And that's the heart of it: the new social networking simply has less thought, less quality, and less time put into it. If blogs were a dumbed-down version of newsprint, social network posts are dumbed-down blogs. But where I appreciated the originality, freedom, and continuity of blogs as compared to newsprint, I do not appreciate the short, disjointed, low-quality posts to social networks.

There are very few things or people that I want to follow play-by-play. With my limited time, I'd rather read a summary of your position on something in a periodic blog post. Indeed, various posts to social networks are often seemingly-random thoughts, especially when they are threaded together with other single-sentence posts on a wall or Twitter feed. These posts are the technological equivalent of fast food. Instead of families planning and making a quality dinner together, then sitting at the dining room table and discussing life together, modern families order lower-quality fast food and eat it on the run.

Please understand that I'm not "against" Facebook. I have an account and use it occasionally to connect with others. It's the posting feature that I have a hard time with: if people want to contribute to the content of the web, I'd rather it be worth reading. That's why I call social networking sites the modern-day AOL: these sites are for people that don't want to spend the time: they want quick; they want short; they want convenient.

And yet Facebook/Twitter/etc. are so popular that they are taking over traditional blogs. I don't see this as a failing of the blog movement. I see it as a moving demographic who would rather post quick, lower-quality contributions. It's a sign of the modern youth that would rather text friends than have real conversations with a voice or in-person call. And yes, this worries me. While social networking has connected so many, it has overshadowed much better social alternatives like "mommy blogs" or friend blog networks. Wouldn't it be encouraging to see current high schoolers posting full, well-thought-out blog articles than single sentences at a time?

That's why I prefer blogs.

P.S. I realize that I'm generalizing here. Some blogs are terribly-written. Some Twitter feeds are high quality. Some Facebook pages are incredibly useful. But despite these specifics, I maintain that--on the whole--blog posts are of a much higher quality than social network posts. Blog posts simply take more time, more thought, and more involvement on the part of the author.