In 1999 there were about 20 blogs on the internet. It’s since gone up, way up. According to an article, “Currently there are over 3 billion people on the world using the internet, 75% of them are reading or posting blogs.” Plus, it’s estimated that by next year, well over 30 million people will be blogging. [article source]
In the 2000s, blogging become more mainstream, and by the time this blog started (it actually started at www.onaxismusic.blogspot.com and still lives there) it was 2010 and the blogging revolution was already underway. Companies started seeing the value of these blogs as an instant way to get street cred; personal testimonials from people, directly talking to other people, about their brand. Thus content marketing was born. This means instead of a billboard interrupting you to say “buy Brand XYZ!” you see an article about how Brand XYZ changed someone’s tire on a dark country road. Then, brand interest, awareness, a new kind of loyalty was born.
Even today, brands are encouraged to think of their online image – which is a series of pictures, posts, videos, feelings, sentiments, etc. all wrapped up in everything you see online about a brand. It gets rather overwhelming to think of all the instances of a brand and how it can affect people. This is why branding people have jobs. Blogs have become one part of the online stratosphere, along with social media, profiles, websites, articles, etc. Imagine for a moment how different it is for Company ABC, who used to only have visibility in the Yellow Pages, perhaps a brochure, signage, a print ad, word of mouth, or articles carefully sculpted in PR releases. Now, every time someone makes a video using their product and uploads it to YouTube, or tweets about it, etc. all that info is out there online. From 1999 to 2019 obviously it’s a different world.
When blogs started, those 23 blogs in 1999 I bet were more personal rather than corporate. One of the first blogging platforms was called “Open Diary” obviously referring to a highly personal account of one’s life. These personal online diaries were featured in an article which said, “demographics of the site as 75% female, with more than half of all diarists being 21 years old or younger.” [source]
This makes me wonder if blogging isn’t a personal catharsis of sorts, perhaps only meant for the young. Or perhaps for the young in spirit?
In 1999, the Internet was bold and loose, you had no idea who was reading what. There weren’t a million online profiles and Google searches. Just the blogger, and the journal. It just happened to be on a screen.
Those days of quiet contemplation are missing in communication online today.
In an effort to capture a truly personal expression, for yourself, if you blog or journal (on paper or digitally), consider blogging like it’s 1999.
Cover image is a piece of art at a location in Chicago / subject to copyright