If I was born and brought up in the time of modern social media, would I even blog?

This was the question I asked on the Web yesterday, and people had interesting responses. Imagine you were born and brought up in a time where Twitter and Instagram always existed. Would you still blog?

Many said no, which I find to be an interesting conclusion especially for people who do blog right now and encourage others to but aren’t from this time period in question and so haven’t experienced the Internet the way younger people have.

For my own response to the question, I found myself thinking about it more than I expected. It’s honestly difficult to really know, especially because my space blog is my profession right now, and my personal blog—which you’re reading—is integral to my identity. That said, here’s my response:

Even if I grew up with Twitter and Instagram as something that always existed, I might have still blogged when I needed to express something longform. Hopefully, LinkedIn wouldn’t have been the tool of choice for that. I think I would end up avoiding it for sure if I was writing about something non-space especially. But I also think that the form and extent to which I’d blog may have been less intense. I may not have had a domain name to begin with because I would’ve had an app-based upbringing rather than through the fundamentals of the browser. And maybe I would settle for one of those LinkTree websites—ugh—to present the portfolio of media outlets I’ve written for.

I think a major reason why I still would’ve eventually started a newsletter is Elon Musk’s takeover of Twitter. The resulting scattering of people across platforms, having to rebuild all of those connections, and still losing out on readership anyway due to algorithmic changes would’ve burnt me and taught me the value of owning the connection to my audience as a writer and journalist, which in actuality I learnt much before. And if not for X, Meta surely would screw up something similarly every few years to provoke a similar response.

The entire world view of what the Web is to people can be tied to their digital upbringing, and so how do we even agree on common causes related to the wellbeing of the Web?

Edit: Love it when my blog post leads to someone else writing another in response. This is the way.

P.S. Jamie uses a good analogy of rented apartments versus owning a house to convey his point. Incidentally, I’ve offered a similar analogy in an earlier article on “how to feel at home on the Internet”.