At 12:01am on 1 August 1981 MTV aired it’s first video with “Video Killed the Radio Star“, by the British synthpop/New Wave group The Buggles. It marked the end of radio as we knew it and brought an era of video. Like every season of change we as people rebel against it as well as beg for it to come back once we have lost it. It is amazing to me now that we LOVE Pandora radio and online streaming audio and in the last 10 years MTV scarcely even shows a video. There is always a generational shift back and forth.
A few years ago when Twitter and Facebook came out it marked and era of micro-blogging that quickly dissolved the smaller community of blogs. It was one of the reasons I stopped blogging for a while. I was no longer able to commune with people on my site. I could only talk with others in 140 characters or less. The larger blogs like Randy Elrod’s, Carlos Whittaker’s, and others of course could maintain it’s community. The super small bloggers who just used it as a diary also maintained. It was the guys like me and conner byrd (worship city), Fred mckinnon, Mudpuppy and a good 40 other bloggers I can think of that took a hit. Now I don’t mean they took a hit in traffic because that was never the point. They lost their voice, their influence, their community, and amazingly enough even friendships. It may sound like I’m being overly dramatic, but I think we have lost something in our lives. We have lost great insight from amazing bloggers because we are too busy to read more than 140 characters. I love to learn from my peers and have developed many friendships through blogging.
Just like the paradox with MTV and pandora I am hearing rumblings from old friends returning back to blogging Like I did last week.
So here is my petition: It was never about the hits. It was about the community. I know we all crave that again so I ask…What is stopping you from starting back up with blogging? What is stopping you from firing up google reader and using it like you did 3 years ago? Use twitter (I love it myself). Use Facebook (extremely powerful). Return to blogging folks because nothing compares to sharing a complete thought, your life, and your faith with others and in 141+ words.
