The way I see it, it's a bit like photography, which started as an expensive hobby, then got more and more mainstream with film processing shops all over the pl

The way I see it, it's a bit like photography, which started as an expensive hobby, then got more and more mainstream with film processing shops all over the place. Then digital photography entered, first as low quality then with rivaling quality. Anybody who wants can now take high quality pictures, and almost everyone will occasionally produce a stunning photo; yet not everyone is a photographer. And that's ok. As the internet grew, blogging became a popular format to write long form and publish it. There was a golden window where search was still new and hadn't yet been gamified, and before the platforms providing what veidr here called quick dopamine hits[1]. Seeing blogging expand and at the same time be instantly searchable was great... but didn't last. Eventually a whole group of users wanted the benefits of exposure of their thoughts & content, without the hassle of writing long form. And I would say, for those users, social media is indeed the perfect medium. Those who do write in long form can still do so, it's just that discoverability has somewhat taken a step back. I contend that it's not a huge deal, as a long form fosters a more thoughtful pace instead of rewarding instant gratification. Links between blogs do help with discoverability, it just that it's an organic process that takes time. Of course, the upside is once a blog is discovered, one can easily go back and read the previous articles. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28592479 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28592479