[Robert Scoble returns to blogging. Photo by Shel]
Robert Scoble has declared that he is going to start blogging more these days, after having spent most of his posting time at Friendfeed and Twitter. I have often followed Robert's lead on social media and in collaborating with him a few times, I have learned just how transparent one can be, while remaining professional.
This time, I was about 10 days ahead of Scoble. I started blogging about 10 days ago and hope to post a few times weekly--if not more, and I am enjoying it a great deal. As much as I obviously like Twitterville and tweeting, for it' speed in generating conversations, it simply is too constrained for expressing a single thought in great depth.
When I tweeted Scoble's intentions, Liza at A Maui Blog said she too was planning to get more active on her blog and San Francisco futurist Chris Saad announced he had registered BlogsareBack.com [although someone else seems to be using the URL right now].
So, is this a trend? Will there be a sudden resurgence of blogging? Will Scoble and I and Liza be part of an long parade of recovering Tweeters who abandon tweeting and return to the long view of the blogosphere?
Well, I do think that blogging is about to enjoy a long steady resurgence. There is a need for the magazine writing style of blogging. But I do not believe it will be at the expense of Twitter and Friendfeed. In fact, social media tools work best when used with combinations of other social media tools including YouTube and podcasting.
When something new is introduced, it goes through a high-visibility fad period in its evolution. This has been true long before social media--with almost any innovation. When the fad dies, there is usually a sharp taper off for a while, which usually is followed, by a long, steady, less-hyped resurgence.
Blogging is well past its fad level and now the return to it--if there really is a return emerging--well be longer and steadier and less hyped. There will come a time when people will tire about speaking about Twitter, just like has happened with blogs, email, television, telephones, and trains for that matter.
But the products have endured and remain useful. I do not think the return to blogging will impact Twitter very much at all. I think that Twitter will continue o evolve rapidly and relentlessly for years to come.
But at some point people will just use it, like they use email. I think that's what starting to happen with blogs. I thinks that's eventually wat will happen with Twitter.
