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Blogging IS back, WordPress is on the rise, and the internet is moving towards a decentralized web. The next renaissance is right around the corner and you’re just in time to be the beneficiary of this trend which will manifest itself in terms of less ‘social media dump’ and more thoughtfully curated content. Blogging will play a powerful role in the future of Web3

Trends have indicated that people (myself included) are getting tired of interstitial information clogging up our news feeds. It’s like trying breathe but having an apple core lodged down our throat! It’s what I call “social media dump.”

We’ve all experienced some level of exasperation at logging on to FB or TT only to be barraged by tiny parcels of fragmentary information ranging from people you ‘should’ like to negatively-charged rhetoric to sponsored gobbledygook all packaged and competing for your attention as you try and scroll past it, only to have the next level of zombieland mind mutation waiting for you.

You literally have to work to find something meaningful on social media sometimes. The truly diabolical part about it is that all of those ads and momentary flashes of information that you casually observed are still with you, they’re hidden in the recesses of your brain in terms of subliminal suggestion.

Users of social media platforms still may prefer rapid-fire sensory appeasement today; however, that trend is like going out for drinks and taking 20 shots in 20 minutes. It gets you buzzed quick but it also has the downside of potentially leading you down very dark alleys late at night. It’s sensationalist, yet hardly constructive.

Blogging is back to reverse that trend

Metaphorically speaking, and to extend the metaphor, people now want to sip on a glass of vino or partake of a nice brew and experience its complex array of taste profiles. Internet content is on the verge of a more experiential trend and blogs will play an explosive part in the resurgence of demand for higher-quality content curation.

WordPress just released an article stating that they now power “over 1/3rd of the top 10 million sites on the web” (source) which is pretty substantial. This not only indicates increased market demand on the internet for CMS (content management system) platforms like WordPress but it also means that there are more people out there blogging which should also hint at an increase in the demand for the content that blogs are producing. Think about that, blogging is back.

decentralized web and blogging web3 — WordPress powers the web. source: wordpress.org

Blogs Are Essential for a Decentralized Web

I know I’ve spoken somewhat harshly about social media so let’s be clear that I’m not against it, heck I rely on social media to get my articles out and it’s played a key role in the success of this website. Social media has brought people together in a way that no other platform has previously allowed – it is somewhat inherently democratic if you think about it.

Our President Donald Trump is a true testimony to it’s power and effectiveness. Social networking is actually a very powerful tool.

However, it was Sir Tim Berners-Lee who got me thinking about something quite radical. As the “inventor of the internet,” Sir Tim was interviewed on CSPAN where he ruminated on his personal conception of the internet and its original intent, it was to be a place which was designed to be more like a web than a hierarchical structure of nodes, where nodes represent commercial manipulation.

He also piqued my interest when he spoke in comparative tones about the difference between social media sites and his notion of the WEB space in which the internet was philosophically intended to function. Here’s what he says in his interview:

That is interesting. Yes, decentralized is the word we are using now. The internet was a permissive space, I did not have to ask permission. . . It could all be connected into the wider web. But it always has to be a web, you should always be able to link everything to anything.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee (CSPAN interview 03/05/19)

decentralized web sir-tim-berners-lee Web3 — Sir Tim Berners-Lee ‘Inventor of the Internet’

Sir Tim Berners-Lee stated quite eloquently that social media sites effectively cordon off sections of the internet for private use where his intention has always been to give free access to all parts of it to everyone.

Sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram have privatized his public, decentralized dream for an internet which should be completely accessible for the benefit of all humanity.

What Sir Tim has been advocating may sound more like the rise of blockchain technology – I affectionately call it ‘blogchain.’ It’s worthwhile to watch the entire interview, a link is provided above.

What Sir Tim Berners-Lee is advocating is a DECENTRALIZED WEB. Blogs and bloggers represent Sir Tim’s virtuous view of the internet and what it stands for as a decentralized space. If social media represents ‘web 2.0,’ then a decentralized web represents ‘web 3.0,’ or “Web3” in modern parlance. This is a very powerful concept!

Ironically, the internet is actually “social” and social media is actually “hierarchical” by definition! It’s crazy, I know!

Conclusion

In conclusion, if the barriers of social media are going to be broken down and then reallocated back to the users themselves in terms of app-level controlled bits of information (PODS), then that puts the power and onus of what we consume and contribute to the broader internet right back in our laps.

As far as blogging is concerned, this is the equivalent of a renaissance; a resurgence in the meaningfulness of blogging and the potential connectivity of the content that we create, as barriers decrease our accessibility and purpose increases. Blogging is back!