I believe there are many ways and styles of blogging and they change according to the personality of the blogger. The birth of these brand new “miniblogging” tools is a proof for that. I have the feeling that the Internet population is fastly abandoning the old school blogging stylebook to embrace a new concept of blogging that makes more room for instinct and feelings.
I see a popular blogger like Marshall Kirkpatrick spending more time on sending messages via his Twitter account than he does on writing posts for his own blog. And the messages that arrive via Twitter are usually more interesting and fascinating than his blog posts, because they reveal a lot about his personality.
Miniblogging is easier than blogging and richer than text messaging: in order to write a three paragraphs blog post I need to spend at least 30 minutes adding tags, links, rewording phrases, formatting, etc., which makes it hard to keep warm the sudden feeling that inspired me to write.
On the other hand, miniblogging allows me to express my emotions in a more immediate way. Moreover, the necessity to keep my text within 140 characters makes me concentrate on what I want to say and thus I tend to give more weight to my own words. Still, I can post links into my text, which makes my messages arrive straight to the public and lets me get immediate feedback.
And I have noticed something funny: the most curious persons are more into miniblogging than blogging. They feel the need to immediately share their discoveries… and nothing is better than a twit when you feel the urge to be in touch with people.
In my opinion, text messaging (SMS) is going to leave the place to miniblogging: nowadays, cellphones integrate Internet (I guess in the future they will integrate also laundry machines) and I am sure that people will use Jaiku or Twitter rather than the standard text messaging service.
What do you think?
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Marshall Kirkpatrick 07.05.07 at 12:35 am
Well I hope you don’t find my blog posts boring! :) Thanks for using me as an example :) it’s an honor.
Livia Iacolare 07.05.07 at 8:34 am
Oh no Marhsall, my intention was to point out how mini-posts on Twitter can sometimes reveal more about a blogger and his personality than normal blog posts do. :)
Michael Pick 07.05.07 at 1:11 pm
First of all nice Twitter linkbait. Reeled me straight in.
I think you have something going here. I would still say that the two are complimentary, like snackies and big old restaurant blow outs.
It can be refreshing to cut through the BS in terms of both self-posturing and in-depth analysis, with a cool link, or a nugget of personal life. But I’m not sure that replaces the at least occasional urge to delve deeper, as you have done here :P
Yet to try the middle ground with Tumblr. Guess that it is the brunch of blog meals.