The “Blogs” Folder

I have a bookmarks folder called “Blogs” that I haven’t opened in years. About 10 years ago, these were the bloggers I read and interacted with regularly. Yesterday, out of curiosity, I opened every link - all 174 of them. Call it a census of who’s left on the blogosphere. The answer is: not many. Most of the blogs I used to follow and read regularly have a last post on or around 2011, with closures beginning around 2006-2008. I suspect that Facebook, and later Twitter, have taken over as the publishing platform of choice. Or perhaps people just grew up and out of blogging (though I question whether Twitter or Facebook invite any more mature discourse than blogging). It’s been a while since I myself have sat down to pen, at length and with consideration, my thoughts, as opposed to simply shooting off a quick Facebook status update. It doesn’t look like it’s happening any time soon.