It’s a classic article that’s already creating lots of chatter: Wired magazine’s Twitter, Flickr, Facebook make blogs look so 2004.
The author’s right: blogging’s slow, it’s boring, it doesn’t generate buzz. If you want to make friends, go on Facebook; if you want to influence people, try Twitter.
Thing is, from the same facts I’ve reached a different conclusion. I think Facebook and Twitter (so 2008) may just have saved blogging. Blogging’s relative slowness and the need for considered, self-contained posts makes it an ideal place for reflection. As the speed and quantity of posts has declined, the quality has been increasing.
Reflection may sound rather academic; so let me recommend a well-aimed rant that reminds me why I still love blogging. Just don’t tell Tom Murphy that blogging’s dead; that would really fire him up.
PR Studies 
Richard,
You’re daring me aren’t you 🙂
I’m trying to resist… really!
Hope you’re well!
Tom
I need to bite and say: bollocks. I have yet to actually see anyone make new friends from something like Facebook as opposed to the more old-fashioned web forums and email lists.
Similarly, I’ve never had any success using Twitter as a journalism tool (but I will admit that could just be me).
Blogging will go on – just as it went on before it was even called blogging – just as other forms of communication survive.
And let’s also bear in mind that Wired is more or less the Playboy for the Geekerati. There are millions of people out there who would still rather have a paper than a blog, never mind a Tweet – something Wired all too often forgets.
I certainly agree with Craig. Blogs will augment into our social fabric just as newspapers and books have. They cannot die just so.
What is making me a little bit concerned is the ‘Is Google making us stupid?’ question. I am one of the digital natives, and I can see the shift happening in relation to my parents vs. my peers. We have become nearly addicted to instant gratification not only in search for information, but also in our regular daily lives.
Can you see an implication of this in the PR industry?
Sure I can see the implications of shortened attention spans.
I spoke (at a blogging conference) on the need for Short Attention Span Communications. But the lessons shouldn’t come as a surprise: a traditional media release should conform to this (news in the first paragraph), and blogging’s also a short attention span medium (though not quite as short at Twitter). But as for the traditional hour-long university lecture: now that’s a real problem (for all parties).
Thank you for a clarification. I have yet another question that might be an interesting topic to study.
A diachronic study could look at evolution of human attention spans (their shortening) across the last 50 years and deducing how it has affected and most likely will affect society at large. It might be fun.