After 260 blogs over a three year period, I now discover that blogging is not cool anymore and now reflects a more “mature reader” (makes you feel good too doesn’t it?). Like everything else in this world, a new study released last week by the Pew Internet and American Life Project says young people are loosing interest in “long form blogging”.(Maybe why my kids don’t read my blogs …and I thought all around they just didn’t care about dad). Experts say blogging is not going away, but it is going the way of the telephone and email. “Useful…but just not sexy” (oh that hurts!).

The study found that only 14% of the kids ages 12 to 17 blog as compared with just over 25% of that age group blogging in 2006. Pew found a similar drop in blogging in the 18 to 29 year old range. Nationally, the percentage of internet users age 30 or older who maintain a blog has gone up from 7% in 2007 to 11% in 2009. This again indicates that blogging is definitely the over 30 crowd.

Like everything else in life…blogging just isn’t quick enough, it’s usually not brief, and it’s not mobile. The “sexy” stuff these days are the new “social networking” sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and even just texting on your mobile phone. These forms of communication are based on quick status updates. In fact the AP article this appeared in interviewed an 18 year old college freshman who stated that “people these days don’t find reading all that much fun”. The report says another factor is over 50% of the 18 to 29 year old crowd access the internet using their mobile phones.

So I feel I have to come to the defense of myself and my fellow bloggers. Unfortunately in my case, I just don’t feel my life is that interesting that people are going to get excited about one of my “tweets”. (Today I went to Slim’s Bar and had a great Hamburger with fried onions…mmmmmm). I’m kind of a bore to be truthful. Having said that, when I do want to make a point, I certainly do not want to be limited to 160 characters (I guess they call it microblogging…not for me!). My wife is all over Facebook and daily informs me of its attributes. The connecting of groups of individuals I believe is of value, but the useless content of what they post honestly bores me. I still think it’s important that people be able to logically put a story, a proposal, or an argument in the form of a written piece that makes sense. And to me that’s what blogging is.

And with the 18 year old saying that people don’t find reading that much fun…I am afraid we’re in trouble as a society if that is the case. And as far as reading a blog on a cell phone, I’ve done it on my blackberry and it works just fine. I’m afraid I am just going to have to miss that 12 to 29 year old demographic with my blog…probably a group I never had in the first place. It’s too bad, because from Lady Gaga to the movie the Hangover, I still think I have a clue of what’s going on with that generation. Here’s a pic of Lady Gaga…who says blogs aren’t sexy anymore?