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

I saw Jatan Mehta reflecting on this question (on micro.blog no less — 👋 @moonmehta) and I couldn’t help but ponder the question myself.

For context let’s get some things in order since the question is premised around time.

• The official start date for my blog is June 2, 2004. There are posts before that but that is a different blog post.
• I joined Twitter in December 2006, and left it in 2017.
• For the ten years of 2007 to 2017 I had both my blog at thingelstad.com and my Twitter profile.
• Most of my writing from 2007 to 2017 originated on Twitter — low-effort, low-value.
• I was never predominantly writing on Facebook, and deleted Facebook before that time but don’t remember when. You can see I’ve written and used Facebook in the past.
• Over the last 10 years my blogging has been increasing and I’m strongly opinionated against social media.
• I also publish the Weekly Thing which gives subscribers a way to get my blog via email, along with commentary on links and other things.

So given the above it may not surprise you that my “too long, didn’t read” response to this question is a resounding yes, I would absolutely blog.

And I think it is worth noting that I only had a blog for about 30 months before getting on Twitter.

Thinking more about the question though I think it is interesting to look at the framing.

Progression?

One view is that this is like time and progression. We had vinyl records, then cassettes, then CD’s, then digital music. While records still are used they are an atypical use and we tend to think of this path as progress. One being better than the other. Is this appropriate for blogs? Are blogs the records and social media the CD’s? This would suggest that you can do the same things on either one which you cannot. I can’t even use simple bold and italics text on a modern social media platform in 2025. The very first blog ever made can do that. I can write long posts like this with paragraphs and complete thoughts. Most social media platforms do not allow this.

I would suggest that in reality the only things that social media and blogging share is some idea that a person is writing something, with or without limitations, that others may read. The book wasn’t replaced by blogs. There are many reasons and use cases that people will share their writing and they are not a progression. They can just be different.

Efficiency?

Another view of this question is to look at efficiency or improvement. In the past we may have rode a bicycle, then we had a car, now we even have buses and trains. Fundamentally a bus or a train is far more efficient than a car. If so, why not get rid of our cars and use those only? How about apartments? An apartment is more efficient than a single-family home. Yet we haven’t decided to only live in apartments designed for maximum efficiency. This analogy to me is the one that resonates the strongest in this area because of the desire for self-expression.

Social media is a lot like living in an apartment. There is a landlord who can decide to allow you to rent or not. There are rules and limitations. You cannot just paint the walls whenever you want and you certainly cannot just remodel the kitchen. You also have to modify your behavior. You cannot play your stereo super loud in the middle of the night. Consider that for a moment and it sounds like most social media platforms. You get an apartment — your profile. You can post as long as the landlord is okay with what you say. You cannot change the way your writing is displayed — no remodeling here. And as long as the landlord keeps the building up your words will be there. But you don’t own anything, and when they decide to sell the building you will go with it.

Having a blog is like having a single family home. Want to remodel? Okay. Want to play your stereo? Okay, within the noise ordinances. Want to change the way the living room is laid out? Fine, none of our business. This is why I have a blog. I want to have my own space, and do my own things, and not be under a landlord. That also means I have to mow my grass, tend to the rain gutters, and manage the upkeep. And just like houses some take more of that than others.

Commercialization

The final way I would look at this question is around the role of companies in our daily lives. Here there are some interesting paths. Let’s look at money. Most of us, including myself, have largely given up our right to transact freely and privately with cash. The tradeoff and convenience of credit cards is so great that we’ve largely agreed that we will allow a company to manage the engagement we have with others for money. With the rise of Venmo we’ve even done this for paying back our friend for an evening of bowling. Rather than handing him a private and secure $10 bill, we decide to allow multiple companies to sit in between that exchange because it is more convenient. To be honest I dislike that but I make that trade-off today.

So how does that apply to me sharing my ideas. Well, before the web and before blogging we actually were in that model with companies in the middle. I could really only get my words to a lot of people if I had a company in the middle. Some publisher or media organization would have to decide that it was beneficial to them in some way to share my writing with others. They got something out of it, and also had their own opinions. The web changed all that forever. In the world of news Dave Winer captured this in 2009 with Sources Go Direct. But it isn’t just news. Thanks to the web and blogging I’m typing these very words on my computer on a Sunday morning. I’m going to hit publish soon and with no concern to the content you will read it. Are there still companies in the middle? Sure, but none of them cared what I wrote. They weren’t a publisher.

So in this case the question about social media or blogging would be better stated as “Should we revert back to a model where companies will only share your writing for their benefit and people do not have their own voice?” While the modern social media company claims to not be editors (even though they are, especially with algorithms) they are only publishing your words because it is in their economic interest. In this case to get data, sell ads alongside, and algorithmic addict others, including you. So no, I don’t think we should go back to that.

Other blog posts on this:

• Bloggers at the right time by Manuel Moreale.
• I would not blog by Matthew Graybosch