What's the future of blogging?

This story, about the Associated Press creating word limits caught my eye a few weeks ago. It was at that time that I found a piece that I currently can't find about the emergence of video as the new text. The article explained that newer generations (mine, my sister's) have grown up with so much immediate access to information that we don't want to read it anymore, we want the instant gratification and something that won't let us get distracted; the future is video.



As a blogger, this concerned me because every week, I produce many written works and I have been wondering so much about the future of blogging. 

When I first joined blogging some years ago, it was different. The blogs were bubbly and new; the ARCs were flowing; everything was original because it had never happened before. I remember there was almost an unwritten code for how to act; bubbly and sweet, and I also remember many more blogs of lower quality. Review requests by publishers were a lot more free flowing, and I remember getting some right away. 

Now, I believe the blogging community has matured, and is more focused on creating better content. Most blogs look good; most bloggers know the basic rules. Publishers have also become more restrictive with their ARCs. For example, Mari and I don't receive near as many review requests as I did at Tantalizing Illusions, even if our work here is better written, and we have about double to triple the page views. 

These are my impressions, and I very well could be wrong. It's clear that the blogging community is constantly evolving, and in no way is that a bad thing. What I can't help but wonder though is when will the community reach its peak?

Or has it already done so? 

I never knew about BookTube until this year when I saw some tweets by Giselle. I'm not a video person in the slightest, and yet this new medium for bookish fandom intrigues me. I've looked at a few videos since then and they seem to do what we do as writers, but they make videos. And it was then that I remembered the theory that in the future, it will be video that is the most digested medium for information. 

Obviously, as a blogger, I'm curious about this. 





Furthermore, with the controversy at BEA about the panel with the BookTuber, I can't help thinking about the future of book blogging.

Will be all become super high tech? Every blog is always searching for new ways to attract readers. Will we be seeing more multimedia news resources? And, as blog readers, do you tire of reading long, written pieces? 

I don't know the answers to any of these questions, and I'd love to read your thoughts in the comments!

-P.E.

10 comments:

  1. Hm. Lots of good food for thought here. Us personally, we do prefer written content over video or audio. (And omg auto-play needs to crawl in a hole and die.) But we can understand why other people might want the convenience of something to watch or listen to, rather than read. For example, Steph often has podcasts on in the background while she does her design work, and Kristan might stream Netflix while she does household chores.

    But at the end of the day, we are most comfortable with writing out our thoughts, and we enjoy reading other people's.

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    1. Autoplay is reallllllyyyy bad.

      What I wonder is how much this topic actually affects us as bookworms, because we're already okay with reading long texts. I like writing and reading writing too. I've never considered how popular it could become to have articles read aloud. Hmm, maybe that's something to watch for?

      -P.E.

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  2. I didn't realise that the (possible) future would consist of videos but that kind of makes sense. Personally I definitely prefer text to videos as I rarely watch them and I don't think I would feel comfortable blogging in videos. On the other hand, I have to say that I'm guilty of skimming posts because the text is either too long or I'm just lazy :/ ... Anyway, this post was really interesting and it has really made me think about the blogging future :) .

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    1. I think comfort is also a big thing. I'm not comfortable making videos either. I guess I don't like the idea of making a mistake, and generally I prefer filming, not being filmed. Confession: I write really long posts, but I can skim too. Often though, I'll go back to a really interesting part.

      Glad it made you think!

      -P.E.

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  3. I suppose everything evolves, although I really can't see blogging with words going away - there's just some things that are better presented as words... I think. And I'm not much into watching book videos (yet?) so I really like being able to read my content. I'm glad to see the other commenters feel the same attachment to blogs!

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    1. I think as readers we're more likely to prefer written content. I haven't watched too many book videos either, although I'm starting to with some of Epic Reads' quick short videos. But those are mostly for features.

      -P.E.

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  4. Very well put, P.E. I have to say I'm a bit guilty of not wanting to read long long posts if they're about books that I don't have a particular interest on, but I usually read the first few paragraphs, if I find it interesting, I'll read on, if not, I'll skim it. I'm not entirely sure about booktubing as the future for book blogging... I do watch haul vlogs and the like, but from bloggers I already follow and read...
    Thanks for the food for thought!

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    1. I think videos for hauls are becoming the preferred medium. It's easier for the bloggers to do (pictures are awful to download/upload constantly) and I'm thinking videos and writing is what's going to become more popular.

      I think in general, I read posts about books I'm interested in though. Or discussion posts. I love to talk/write so I always enjoy sharing my opinion.

      -P.E.

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  5. I like reading book reviews and blog posts rather than watching a vlog... the reason being because some of the vlog I have seen are way too lengthy... there are a lot of ummms and random introductions to pets.... I can skim through a blog post pretty quick and if something catches my eye, I can stop and read slower and digest the material more... I can't really do this with vlogs...

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    1. This is pretty much how I feel. I like Epic Reads' videos because they're so short (well, I don't watch the long ones) so it's like a quick bite. I don't watch the long vlogs though. I feel like the production would have to be very high-end for me to watch, and that means it would be reasonably condensed.

      -P.E.

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What do you think?