Blogs are greater than Social Media.

Dear people with something meaningful to say, please come back to the blogosphere. It is still here and it is better.

So I’ve been thinking about how social media impacts our life a lot lately and there are some thoughts that I can’t kick so I am going to dip my toes into the rabbit hole and see what I can see without going all in.

I want to start with trying to present a concept… actually represent an old concept as a better alternative to the social media outlets that we are currently used to and drawn too.

Here is a list of why I am disenchanted with social media:

• They own the content
• privacy and the power big data has
• there is an element of self expression in less constructed platforms… let the medium be a little more of the message. It is also more creative.
• The current social media standards succeed in part that their structure allows for more effortless sharing… often that produces thoughtless content. There is a flip side to that though (see thoughts on why blogs will fail as an alternative)
• The news and stories you get are filtered… some say it is tailored to your preferences but many disagree with that. You have the ability to scan headlines… it is something weve evolved to do. Pick good sources and then you can filter from there.

Here is where I think blogs are better:

• RSS. Yes we can.
• You can adjust your presentation to be another expression of your message (and self).
• Your content is yours.
• Think of it as a journal (but written on the platform that you own). Think about designers creating themes and options that allow you to quickly print and archive your writing//sharing/work with full control. I think this may already exist.
• You can categorize what you follow and what parts you follow very easily with RSS. If you only want to follow my photos (like Instagram) you can. You have control of what you want to read.
• It is space to post something more serious. I believe, with the correct design and categorizing, your serious thoughts and ideas can co-exist with your more social posts.
• You could easily use tags or categories with a combination of a password or login for more private and personal content. There is also the option to post something privately. I am not suggesting that a blog would replace a service that requires more security (like Evernote) although I have spent time trying.
• Fewer ads.

Here is where I think blogs will fail as a replacement:

• Meet the new boss… same as the old boss. Eventually big companies will figure out how to infiltrate this too.
• There is creativity in the “wild west” of everyone being able to adjust the format/structure of their content btu there is also confusion and unreadability which leads to frustration
• Sharing and reacting isn’t necessarily all in one page so it might feel less social… mediums get in the way of social”ness”. I think that can be figured out though.

Here are the steps I want to take on this blog as I try to create an alternative to mainstream social media.

• Develop a better presentation to seperat images (Instagram), links (Facebook), Status Updates (Facebook/Twitter), longer articles (get excerpts correctly done), and then a new option of conversations (maybe more comment based?)