What do I get out of blogging?

Social media killed the blogging star. My blogging habits started to die right around the time social networking sites began to suck up all of the energy in the internet room.

Social media sites are great at two things: capturing attention, and delivering low-effort feedback. With a blog, you have to manage comments. On social media, I can block annoying reply guys. Social media sites let you aggregate media. It's like an RSS reader with comments built in.

So what do I get from blogging again in the year 2023? I'm not entirely sure.

I began blogging as a way to network and break into web development. Blogging is how I met some of my oldest and dearest friends. It's how I met my husband.

I returned to blogging after Phony Stark bought Twitter. I'm trying (and mostly failing) to wean myself off of the bird site. It's hard. Twitter is the primary way I interact with some friends. It's the only way I interact with some loose connections.

What am I losing by quitting¹ social media in 2023? I'm not entirely sure.

My hope is that by redirecting my attention away from Twitter and toward blogging, I'll restore my ability to think and write deeply. I also hope that blogging helps me find some common threads and clarity about what I'd like to do in my next career.

Can you still find community in blogging? I suspect that era is over, especially since I don't want to manage comments. Although I am blogging as much for myself as for an audience, but having neither comments nor analytics lets me pretend that I'm having the electronic equivalent of a kickback with friends.

Perhaps these days, that's what we all want.²