Blogging is Dead…Undead Undead Undead

This past couple of weeks has been a horror show (in a bad way) for so many creatives, small businesses, political activists, and more as the United States handled an impending TikTok ban.* Hand in hand with that, people are called to show where they stand on fascism and plutocracy (oligarchy) by leaving Twitter/X and Meta apps (Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp). This means that many are seeing how social media is slowly being monopolized by billionaire tech bros who are on the leash of a fascist government. Those same folks are starting to ask the important questions about social media use, where to migrate, and how we want to move forward with our internet usage. The answers are as diverse as the people asking them but I thought I would share my opinion.**

* Without putting a tinfoil hat on too long, the situation with TikTok feels like a tech bro marketing scam.
**Said opinion is of a Millennial weirdo with a mild (read: not mild) obsession with retro media.

This morning, as I scrolled through Bluesky, I saw a post by Matt over at MGMasonCreative [who I adore as the host of the Wednesday Horror Writers Chat on Bsky] talking about Blogging. Apparently part of the social media “what do we do?” conversation has been around reviving blogging. Like Mark, I also responded with “but blogging hasn’t gone anywhere, the readers have.”
Please go check out Mark’s post.

While SmallTownCreepy has only been around a couple of years, I’ve been a blogger on one site or another since 2006. I’ll save you the personal history lesson about my various sites by getting to the point that is, I, like Mark, have seem blogging go from an active community to what is now a split camp of old school bloggers (the minority) and would be influencers (the majority) and neither with much of an audience.

Used to be, blogs would be part of webrings, round ups, and a network of bloggers in the same genre. Posts would get comments or, sometimes, links to their blog posts in response to yours (same with vlogs – remember when YouTube used to prompt you to make a video response to something you were watching?).
Then blogs started to be dominated by folks who wanted to “blog for a living” and followed business guru advice to fill posts with affiliate links, listicles, fast posts with click bait titles, and more. Blogs in the mainstream transformed to what felt like the equivalent of channels surfing on tv and seeing nothing but ads.
At the same time, social media sites like Twitter, Instagram, and later TikTok sprouted and drew people away from long form content.
This gave blogging the death knell…as far as many people were concerned.

But blogging was still around. Old school blogging, that is, long form content about life, opinions, etc within a genre/niche without a dominating focus on clickbait advertisement, remained alive after its hay day.
A year ago, I started seeing a post here and there from people around my age call for a return to such blogs. Articles and posts waxing nostalgic about LiveJournal, themed blog parties, and when people used to comment and converse rather than rapid fire like and scroll. Burn out from the online hustle and lack of real community on many sites made people miss this corner of the internet.

Not Just Blogging: Retro is Back, Baby

I want to say that I might be showing my age and perhaps viewing some parts of retro social tech (online or analog) through rose colored glasses (I am trying to check myself on this so I don’t end up being that Boomer on the front porch yelling at the kids in the street). That said, I am a big advocate not only to the return of old school blogging and vlogging but other forms of early internet socializing.

If we’re realizing the benefits to personal, long form media, lets also take a look at decentralized social media. Remember forums and chat rooms?
There were times when various sites, brands, blogs, and more had their own forum and chat box. I would hop between Gothic Beauty Magazine’s forum, various RP and fan fiction forums (I was a big text based RP’r in worlds inspired by Anne Bishop’s Black Jewels Trilogy and Clive Barker’s Hellraiser), witchcraft sites (WitchVox anyone?), and more. IRC (Internet Relay Chat) as well as chat rooms on other sites had a vast array of communities brought together by special interests just like social media hashtag communities today.

Beyond the internet, there were even older forms of socialization. Zines (independently and cheaply published booklets often associated with fandoms, punks, and more) were popular in the 90’s and early 2000’s. You could go into coffee shops, book stores, music stores, skate shops, and resale/thrift stores and fine a rack of these handmade booklets. Topics would range from sci-fi fandom to political activism. In the backs of them, you could send letters or self addressed envelopes and a dollar or two and the creator would put you on a mailing list to get future publications – the original blogging and newsletter.

I bring all of this up, not to wallow in nostalgia, but to point out two things:
1. None of these forms of media have gone anywhere. Sure, they’re less prominent and the users and creators have dwindled, but they are still out there.
2. Maybe we should consider a return, a revival, a mass exodus from billionaire owned clickbait and doom scrolling and go back to our digital and analog roots.

RETVRN

Here’s the deal. Things are looking pretty bleak on Al Gore’s Internet (this is a joke btw).
Not only are techbro oligarchs teaming up with fascists to control the media and steer the minds of millions, but we also have the rise of AI generated images/text/sounds/videos.
By returning to the more dispersed, personalized, and community based media, we can shift the paradigm we are in. I really do believe that.

For my part, I am working on creating media and spaces to do just that.
This year, SmallTownCreepy will be getting a forum.
We are also launching SmallTownCreepy Radio in March and that will have a designated chat room.
I am also making more zines this year. Last year I dipped my toe into zine making with a couple of fan zines. This year, I not only have fan zines but political, personal, art and social commentary and how-to zines planned for each month. These and physical editions of my games will be available on a shop soon or you can get them digitally for cheap/free depending.
I also plan on supporting others in the community doing the same (if you have a blog, forum, chat, zine, etc please comment below so I can check it out).

As for social media, it isn’t going away but I do hope that seeing what is going on will spur creatives to diversify their apps.
Last year I backed and am excited to join a new streaming service called Moonbeam. It is a creator focused streaming site to rival Twitch. From what I understand and can explain is that it was born from unhappiness around how Twitch nickles and dimes it creatives while also not keeping them safe. I’m excited to see a new streaming platform and look forward to migrating there completely once it moves out of Alpha testing.
In response to TikTok’s shenanigans, a new app called Neptune is in the works. This one also claims to be creator focused and, from what I’ve seen, looks pretty damn good. I can’t wait to swap over when they launch.
I’m still looking for a good Instagram alternative. Bluesky is claiming to come out with one but I’m hesitant to have both my microblogging platform and my image sharing platform owned by the same company – a company I don’t trust anyways (there’s been transphobic issues and hints of Bsky going the way of Twitter once they monetize) but am choosing to stick with for now as the lesser evil.

Unprecedented Times

I know a return to old school internet isn’t a cure all. If it was, it would have worked the first time around. However, I do think that taking back media from monopolizing billionaires is a step in the right direction. Building communities and supporting writers, artists, and other creatives benefits us all (if we learned anything from Covid quarantine its that entertainment and art are necessary).

Whatever you do regarding your social media use and media content (creation or consumption), my hope is that you are mindful of who you support (and who might be harmed), that you are kind to others and yourself, and that we all do what we can, even in small ways, to make this world we live in a little better every day.