Carry on blogging

There are times, when I look around at the ruins of the journalism blogosphere that used to exist around me, that I wonder why I persist where so many have abandoned the game. Wouldn't it be sooo much easier to just post to Twitter and Facebook, and let blogging fade into the past?

And, of course, I feel that siren song quite a lot of the time. What stops me? Well, Justin Paterno catches the reason: the exchange of ideas.

In so many ways, platforms like Twitter have made that process and exchange orders of magnitude better, but I’m increasingly struck by how much time we spent writing and thinking back then compared to now. I’m also constantly humbled by the sheer amount of incredibly intelligent people who I have discovered on platforms like Twitter, but sometimes find myself missing the civility, camaraderie, and thoughtfulness of the arguments and conversations in the blogosphere. I’ve met so many new people on Twitter, but still I’m closest with the strangers behind the websites I met while blogging.

And there's something important in that. In an age where the shortness and speed of content, of hot takes and clickbait, there's still a role for slower, more considered writing. And that's why I carry on blogging.