Blog or Twitter?
One of the questions that floats around Formspring is something along the lines of “which would you give up: your blog or your Twitter?” This was not a very difficult question for me to answer– of course my Twitter would be gone in a heartbeat, before my blog!
My blog is like… a part of me. I’ve been rambling about the stupid stuff in my life for over TEN YEARS. Since I am 21, that is like HALF OF MY LIFE. In no way could Twitter ever match that, even though as of writing this I have tweeted 9 883 times (and counting…), whereas this blog, which dates from May 2006, with several 2004 entries thrown in for laughs, only has 539 (once this is posted it will be 540) entries.
It’s just… different. Twitter is often very superficial. It lacks depth. In many cases, I use it more as an instant messaging system or a way to post emo song lyrics without having to log into Livejournal.
And yet, with the Formspring question, I’ve seen quite a few people say they would keep their Twitter, because it’s more social, etc. BUT! So is a chat room, and it was designed for that sort of interaction, whereas Twitter wasn’t.
On the other hand, we all know how as time progresses we want information quicker than the speed of light and blog entries are not always concise (ramble, ramble, I’m home sick today by the way, I watched Atonement, how depressing, I feel as though I am having a mid-life crisis and I’m not even 22 until April 8th, oh wait, what was I talking about?).
It’s a question I’ve seen around the Internet these last few weeks (NOT on Formspring), and I want to regurgitate it now– are personal blogs becoming a thing of the past? So many of them are turning into niche blogs, but what about those of us that simply do not have a niche? What about those of us who are just creepy voyeurs who don’t comment?
So, my bloggy friends, go ahead and answer the questions! Would you give up Twitter or your blog? Are personal blogs dying? Do we let them die, or do we lead the revolution of the new and improved non-niche weblog?
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When I’m not making the Internet pretty & functional at my day job, I can be found snapping photographs, having dinner with friends, listening to kickass music, fiddling with one of my many Apple products or shopping for new & exciting sweaters. 
When I first got into twitter, I would have picked twitter. I run out of inspiration for blogging all the time, I don’t have the patience to do code and design (though I constantly wish I did)…but my blog has been a part of me for a while too. Three or four years, I think. Which really isn’t that long, but it’s long enough for me to not want to stop doing it.
I don’t think blogs are becoming a thing of the past. Sometimes, twitter just isn’t enough. :/
I would give up Twitter without even thinking about it. I’ve been blogging in some form or another since I was eleven. That’s a large portion of my life, especially when you consider the fact that I’ve been blogging for half my online life. I’ve been Twittering regularly for under a year (though my account is 2.5 years old).
I kind of feel like all blogs evolve. My blog started out less personal, something I did to get comments and hits. Now I just blog about what I want to, and I like it better that way because there’s no pressure. Before, if I didn’t get 23470324 comments, I would feel like a failure. Now, of course I like comments, but I feel more like a failure if I write some stupid generic post, even if it gets 2370432 comments. So, yeah, while some of the personal blogs you may have followed for awhile are less personal, you’ll always find other blogs that still are.
Non-niche blogs are better, imo. I mean, obviously niche blogs can be nice and useful and informative, but I LIKE reading people’s thoughts and ramblings and all the stupid things that go on in their lives. That’s what I write about. That’s what I like reading.
Definitely Twitter. Like you mentioned, the content on Twitter is shallow and superficial, and for me, barely social. If I wanted to truly “socialize”, I’d get on chat. For me, Twitter is something that I’m on mostly because it’s what every blogger/web designer/person under the sun should have, and I’ll feel left out if I don’t have one :P Though I’m not consistent with blogging, at least when I do, the content is deeper and more meaningful (at least I hope so) than 10 tweets put together.
This is the second blog that’s been talking about the death of personal blogs! For me, I prefer personal blogs over niche ones just because they offer more variety, and it’s interesting to read about other people’s opinions and thoughts, given that they actually write something that can keep my attention. So no “I woke up today and had cereal. Then I watched Lord of the Rings. Omg, Legolas is hot. Teehee.” sort of entries :/
The choice would be easy for me… I don’t have a Twitter! So I guess that says a lot about how I feel about it. :P
I agree, I’d definitely give up Twitter first. I know my blog doesn’t exactly exist in any capacity right now, but it will soon, and while I don’t always have inspiration for what to say the fact of the matter is that a blog has a lot more substance and is a lot more entertaining. Twitter’s a great way to stay connected, but I find that’s more for staying connected to people that you already know, not so much for meeting new people, which is an opportunity that a blog does give as long as you get involved in the community!
I log in to Twitter a lot to read tweets, but I don’t post very often. I never feel like I have anything worth tweeting. It would be quite easy for me to give up Twitter, and if it came down to Twitter or my blog, I’d definitely keep my blog. I like the depth of the social interaction in a blog whereas if I really wanted to ramble, I could easily find someone around me or on MSN.
I don’t think blogs are dying; the number of blogs seems to be growing all the time. Maybe in a few years the growth will slow down, but I don’t foresee the death of blogs for a very, very long time.
If I had Twitter, I would definitely delete my Twitter account rather than my blog.
I wouldn’t say personal blogs are dying, but the posters are just being a little bit more cautious because of the risk they have when they post personal things online. From facebook photos to personal blog entries, future employers will judge by what you post online.
I will definitely give up my Twitter, no way will I ever give up my blog. Twitter is a form of social media interaction and most of the time we have a lot more things to talk about in more than 140 characters. Blog entries are more in-depth and thoughtful.
I don’t really feel that personal blogs are dying. There still seems to be quite a lot of bloggers and maybe had just “retired”. I’ve friends who retired from blogging because they feel that they have outgrown it. Not for me but it does happen. But we do see more new bloggers coming up to fill the space on the Internet.
I would personally rather keep both, because I feel like having Twitter stops me from posting disjointed, a-thousand-topics-per-entry blogs. However, in a life or death situation, I’d give up Twitter and just tell people to deal with the disjointed blogs.
I think it only seems like personal blogs are dying because the blogs that we follow are mostly owned by those in an age group where work and parenting is more important than the things that were previously talked about in their blogs.
There are still plenty of personal blogs belonging to the younger generation!
Twitter would have to go. Whereas my blog has carefully-written entries that take a while to write, my tweets are just off-the-cuff random comments. I like to think that my blog is more worth reading than my tweets.
Personal blogs *are* sort of dying. For example, if I click all the links in someone’s blogroll, nearly all of them won’t have updated in at least a month, and a lot have just been laying dormant for months. I see so few active blogs! It would be a shame if they became a thing of the past, considering I’m just getting into it…
dude, this is so hard! my twitter is linked to everything. including my blog. so if i got rid of my blog, my twitter would still be everywhere else, which is so much more up to date. but i’ve had my blog for like… 10+ years.
i might have to let this one simmer for a while. i just.. i just don’t know. =x
i guess if you think about it, who knows how long twitter or any other social networking site will stick around (looks like it’ll be a while). nevertheless, that makes me want to lean towards keeping the blog vs twitter.
Umm, I’d say give up Twitter. I do enjoy it, but whateves. I think my blog is actually going to stick around now. And if it doesn’t, you and Clem will be very disappointed and I will have to start blogging again.
Without a doubt I would give up my Twitter. I’ve had it for a few years (I don’t know how long exactly) and I only have 300 tweets. I have been blogging since like.. 2001? So..yeah, heh. I don’t think personal blogs are becoming a thing of the past at all. I think they are a little harder to find sometimes because people do like to do things like tweet but theyre there.
I’d give up Facebook instead.
I love both blogging and twittering too much to toss either aside; they can be very complementary if used properly. Met so many awesome people through twitter and I’d hate to give up that whole quick-finding ability.
I’d definitely give up my Twitter first. Even though I’ve only had my blog for a short time, it means infinitely more to me than a dumb Twitter account.
I’d choose my blog over my Twitter account any day. Like you said, blogs have more depth and a sense of who the person behind the scenes “is.” Twitter doesn’t offer that. Yes, Twitter has the interactive aspect, but um, essentially threaded comments on a blog entry are interactive too?
I think niche blogs are partially inevitable (whether or not that is because of Twitter I’m not sure). But I do think a certain cause of the development of niche blogs are the threat looming over all of us that employers take more stock of an individual’s Google search results/Facebook photos/blog entries/tweets/etc than credentials listed on a resume. That’s a pretty scary thought :S
You and I should talk because this is one of the things I am studying in my Masters.