Future for Weblogs

After researching the topic, I have come to several ideas of where weblogs will be going in the future. I think that three possible choices could happen and they are as follows:

1. Disappear all together
2. Evolve and grow into something new
3. Continue popularity for creative/professional works

Diminishing Effect

from: http://www.businessesgrow.com

The first possibility is an obvious one, but it is also one that I don’t find likely to happen. But since it is possible I will look at it from that angle. There are faults in weblogs and the most common one we find is that not all can be deemed creditable. There is always going to be that one crazy person who rants and raves their opinions, with no sources, that makes other bloggers look bad. If weblogs gain a negative reputation and are discredited in social medias the popularity of weblogs could dwindle and die out over time. The health of weblogs depend on professionals pushing their research in a scholarly manner. Weblogs need those people to continue their projects, as soon as we lose those professionals the weblog world looses is strengths and eventually could die out.

Although research shows on this article here that the most fastest growing companies aren’t using blogs as much anymore compared to other social medias, doesn’t mean blogs are being used in other areas for creative and other professional uses. Maybe blogs just aren’t cut out for commercial uses as much as personal?

Transformation

Another possibility is that the weblog world evolves into something entirely new. As new genres emerge weblogs will need to transform into supporting the new genres. Such as if video blogs become more popular there will need to be more formats that center around the creative uses that videos may need. If main stream media popularize weblogs and supports them, more people will get into the weblog world and as more people join the more creative ideas and experiments become available. The wider the audience the possibilities explode exponentially and the success of blogs will transform to meet the users needs.

Other social medias lack in ways that blogs can flourish in a lengthy article can be found here on them. This shows how twitter can’t provide any in-depth analysis, Facebook locks in data so a users, for an example, pictures will be lost if signed out…Weblogs allow for a more friendly use of materials and data and complete conversation.

Expanding

The final possibility is that I think it will continue being a place to popularize creative and professional works. Weblogs are a good place for aspiring authors to gain a reputation and audience as the begin their careers. They are allowed immediate feedback and can work on ideas in creative and experimental ways to discover what works or not for them. It is also a great place for the skilled professionals to congregate. Professionals in certain fields around the world can read each others posts and research and provide feedback that may lead to entirely new discoveries. These creative and professional topics placed in blogs can gain a wider audience that never was reachable before and will grow as the future leads on.

Other Views

Weblogs is a place where opinions can be shared in news media that in the past were overlooked as we read in the text but also shown in this article as well. On that article I found this one on Dave Winer who has been dubbed the father of blogging and a complete list on things he would like to see in the future can be found here. What I found interesting is that if you are paying for a website to host your blog, and if you pass on…well…all the data is erased forever. Finances run it, advertising has its influences, those are aspects we can’t ignore in the future of blogging. Also according to a survey found on this article shows that the youth aren’t as interested in blogging as in the past and also gives reasons for this decline. If we want a strong blogosphere we might have to push the benefits of blogs to our educators.