This is similar to claims that cameras are obsoleted by smart phones. It's only true insofar as the timeline being examined starts at the peak of the consumer

This is similar to claims that cameras are obsoleted by smart phones. It's only true insofar as the timeline being examined starts at the peak of the consumer camera frenzy. But well before a large chunk of consumers had point-and-shoot cameras, amateur photography was very much a thing. And still is. Blogging existed well before social networks, going by its earlier name of "weblog" or even "home page". There was a frenzy where many people started blogging on tools like blogger, blogspot, wordpress, etc; and then many eventually switched to forms of self expression that had more gratifying feedback loops. But the characteristics of the original demographic of bloggers haven't changed and many quality blogs still exist (with new ones springing up) where there is a motivation to communicate in long(er) form and focus on substance, not so much community building or gratification.