Writing is dead. Long live blogging.

I am on the books side of the books vs blogs debate. Which side are you on? Deep red wine or Bacardi Breezer? Soulful classical music or foot-tapping pop song? Lifelong romance or passionate fling?

Photo by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash

Blogging is not writing. Not in the deeply considered, painstakingly researched, repeatedly-read sense, that I consider good writing to be. It is a hastily composed pop song that repeats notes rather than the oeuvre of a classical musician that never fails to surprise. Yet the democratisation of writing has meant that blogging is here to stay. In a noisy universe filled with competing voices, it is the voice that most people most want to hear. Why you and I should be interested in the love life of Mary M or follow the weight battles of J Flanders ( names changed) is worthy of thought. Yet there are thousands of people who show interest in topics as riveting as ‘Make your weighing machine your best friend’ and ‘Five emotions that feel like love.. but are not.’ These two successful bloggers between them have a following of almost 300000. Why?

It is certainly not the quality of writing that makes successful bloggers gather a large following. By ‘blogging’ I mean any kind of writing that has not passed editorial controls or been filtered by erudite critics. It could be a blog on a website devoted to a particular subject, a story on medium or substack or an unusually long post on social media. What makes it different from a published article or book is the informal writing, the personal point of view and the advice being dished out. While journalists are trained to present both sides of the story, most bloggers press on with just one: their own. So blogging is often an outpouring of emotions and thoughts in no particular order on totally random subjects. It is an extreme display of what was called ‘interiority’ by literary critics, in the days when books and pages were things and interiority was a good thing: to be slowly, deliberately and carefully revealed. Show, not tell - was the golden rule of circumspect writing. Blogging on the other hand is about telling, flaunting and listing. And writing often, sometimes every day, about the same topic. It is a question of being picked up by the algorithms and using the correct hashtags. It is about finding your voice and then your tribe and then using the numbers to make money. It is a science not an art. The followers have to feel they get value out of the blog so there are lists ( very popular) for easy reference. The followers also have to know what they are getting when they walk into your blog/shop so if weight management is what you want to write about, stick to a 100 different variations on that theme. And write about it as often as you step on the scales: ie everyday.

Articles are typically more formal and informative, aiming to provide detailed analysis, research, or news on a specific topic. They often appear in newspapers, magazines, journals, or academic publications. They are ‘longer,’ and in a world that is impatient, superficial and unable to concentrate, they must seem interminably boring. On the other hand, blog posts are generally more conversational, informal, and personal. They are commonly found on websites or blogs and focus on sharing opinions, experiences, advice, or updates. In a world that is at once more universal ( connected by the universality of the internet) and more segregated ( tribal culture), everyone wants to read ONLY what they are interested in and they want to get to that information quickly. The shortcuts on their laptops take them straight to where their interests are. The age of flicking through encyclopaedic newspapers on general subjects such as ‘ World’ or ‘Sports’ is definitely over. The three coffee Sunday morning odyssey of reading the newspaper and ruminating has long gone. Along with perspective gleaned from history, coloured by geography and enriched by philosophy. Because reading is not the thought provoking or meditative activity it used to be, it has been taken out of sombre and silent libraries and reading rooms into chugging metros and huffing and puffing gyms. It has mostly been replaced by ‘ listening’ which the new reading, while doing something else. Multi-tasking is the name of the game. The new Sunday morning is about listening to a podcast on the treadmill, speedily glancing through a few blogs on the phone while sipping a kale and banana protein shake and then going for puppy yoga ( yes it’s a relaxing thing) or meditation to help you focus. Focus? Man you are focused enough – zoom out, see things in perspective. Learn wider, think deeper and you probably will not need those expensive meditation classes. Hey, there’s a blog post right here! How to cut out those expensive weekend classes with mindful (and inexpensive) newspaper reading.

One of the key factors that help successful bloggers earn significant revenue is the understanding of technology and marketing. From nouns and verbs, the force has now moved to those who understand affiliate marketing and content calibration. We seem to have moved beyond penniless wordsmiths in the past to commercially savvy content creators. A poetic turn of phrase means nothing, earns nothing. Blogs, like everything else, are created to earn money. It is no accident that India’s most successful blogger in terms of number of followers, is an IIT graduate who used to work for Goldman Sachs. Amit Agarwal writes a technology related blog called Labnol.org and reportedly earns much more than his investment banking job could ever pay him. He is also a columnist for the Wall Street Journal, writing mostly on consumer software and mobile apps.

I have no quarrel with Agarwal’s writing. He is obviously an expert in his field and was early in the game. He deserves the heights he has scaled along the way. In fact, I would be happy if all bloggers were experts in their fields and to be fair, there are many who are: fitness gurus who carry their practice and reputations into paid-for blogs. Golfers who have achieved success and share their personal tips. Cooks who share innovative recipes. What gets me though, are the self-styled experts on all kinds of subjects who have taken their jumbled and purely personal thoughts on fashion or holidays to unprecedented levels of popularity. The writing is sloppy and rarely reveals a new idea. The motto seems to be Find 10000 people who are incapable of thinking for themselves and feed them your personal concoction of travel tales, fashion sense and food habits.

My other pet grouse is agony aunts (and uncles). In this complicated world of ever-changing relationships they have a field day. From pop psychology to zen buddhism, they leave no stone unturned in their quest for providing fool proof recipes for the perfect marriage/divorce/breakup/restart. From how to catch a man’s eye to how to turn a blind eye to your partner’s faults, it is all dished out with perfect poise and confidence. Half of it is blindingly obvious common sense – the other half is such half-baked psychology that it can only spread agony. Well, what else can you expect from an agony aunt?

Meanwhile, I have decided to say a firm no to reading blogs. I do write them occasionally but hopefully there is some insight to share. I am going to rekindle my relationship with books: real books, with well written prose and original thoughts. They will stay with me forever. I will grow old alongside their yellowing, dog-eared pages. What’s more, I will not have to hang around in bars to catch them, nor will I have to devise elaborate stratagems to keep them and they will provide endless pleasure.  

What more could I want?

Vinati Sukhdev has been a journalist and advertising copywriter in India, Singapore and the UK. In 2022- 23 she did a fellowship at the Distinguished Careers Institute, Stanford University.

She lives in London and is the author of a successful book - East or West: An NRI mum’s manual on how to bring up desi children overseas.