Published on 2023-07-29
About 10 years ago I decided to axe my personal website and technical blog. At that moment, it felt like a good choice. The 'death of the blog' narrative was ubiquitous, and it seemed that the end of blogging was inevitable. Twitter was roaring, and the untimely demise of Google Reader delivered what looked like the final blow to blogs. We adapted and moved on; so it goes.
Twitter, especially in its technical sphere, felt like a natural successor to my tech blog. At that time, Stack Overflow was in its glory days, and Google's SERP was amazing. Information was easily discoverable, and I saw an opportunity to simplify my digital existence. My exhaustion with Wordpress nudged me in this direction, so I said fuck it; so it goes.
As years passed, the sweet taste of social media started to turn to ash. Twitter became unbearable, and I can't pinpoint the exact moment or reason that tipped me over the edge, but it was definitely before the infamous 'Space Karen' era. I did revisit the platform after the takeover, not out of love, or hope, but by the morbid curiosity akin to watching a train wreck unfold. Eventually, even that lost its appeal; so it goes.
Despite my bitterness, the digital world still hosts numerous amazing communities. Platforms like Mastodon, Discord, Matrix, IRC, and various forums continue to thrive. But now, I view them through a different lens: or they are just rapid communicating platforms, like IRC which isn't going the way of the Dodo anytime soon; the others? They may too, follow the path of their predecessors; so it goes.
The term 'blog' might not accurately describe this platform. It feels more akin to a personal tech pulpit – a space for me to project my thoughts into the void, mix with a playground of projects. There's a certain comfort in this, as even if no one else finds this useful, it still serves a purpose for me, as it could act as a future reference, or simply as a means of organizing thoughts in a way that is comprehensible to others, and as being so, it can be too for a future version of myself. After all, the present version will too cease to exist; so it goes.