Is blogging still worth it

I came across this interesting question on HN and decided to write my thoughts on this topic as a blog post to see if my views have changed in the future.

The question is there is AI generated SEO content everywhere, and there are platforms that promote the engagement bait and demote everything else and an individual blogger writing on his own website may not reach any readership, connection at all in the flood of “Content”. This is a valid question and the concerns listed here are actually true.

I started blogging around 2010 in Tamil and later moved on to my blog somewhere in 2020 I think. I always thought it is important for developers to have their own blogs and websites to showcase to potential employers. I used to write only very serious (what I thought) posts and had a high bar to hit publish. I still have numerous outdated drafts because they didn’t make the cut.

I actually met people, landed a job, created few good friends through blogging. I used to use Google analytics after every post to see how readers behave. Truth to be told, I never had more than 3 digit readership for any posts. I used to follow the SEO playbook, cross post on other blogging platforms, share my links on social media, etc. At that time, writing a post is more of a chore that I must do than I want to do.

But after Elon bought twitter and ran a rail through all of the followers, previous playbooks to get better at Twitter and made it a bot army site, something snapped in me. I stopped caring about making this a bigger blog or to reach out to people, or to cross post to social media and other blog directories. I stopped using Google analytics as they made a change called V4 and making the tool extremely complicated to even understand the site and metrics.

Now this site is my online home. I write what I like to write about and whenever I can. I stopped trying to maintain a regular posting schedule. I stopped adding unrelated Unsplash images as cover to appease the readers. I don’t even look at the built in analytics provided in Hashnode for this blog. I just write to organize my thoughts or to rant about some incident. I sometimes write about random bugs I found and those have been helpful to get back when I face similar issues.

But overall, my view towards writing in online has changed as it is more of a personal activity than anything else. If someone else read it and liked it, that’s just a side effect. I still add this blog on my resume because some of them are technical content, but I’m not limited to write or live only as a developer online anymore.

It turns out, I’m not the only one that feels this way. After the Twitter fiasco, I’ve seen a lot of buzzing activity around personal blogs, and owning your writing. I found amazing sites and my RSS feed has become fat to a level that I can’t read them all even if I had all the time in the world.

There will always be corporations, people, sites that try to control what people see, read or hear with algorithms and agenda. There will always be a small group of people that doesn’t care about that noise and just try to live in their little corner of the internet. I now belong to that small group even though I don’t think I’m a good blogger. But that’s what blogging is about, I’m free to write the worst blog post I can think of and still could publish without needing for approval or validation from others.

After all the AI generated flood online, I seriously think that human written content will have higher value than ever. It is like the short story (I forgot the name) of Sujatha where woman are extinct and men uses robots designed as female companions, but every man yearns a connection and touch of a real woman. I forgot the rest of the story, but I feel we are in a very similar place. When you see something that’s not written by AI and not written for ulterior motive like reach, money, engagement, It feels great to read it.

So, is blogging still worth it? it depends on how you define worth. For me, the activity itself is worth it. I had something to say and I said it. Can you settle for the same thing? Even if you couldn’t, the AI generated, engagement-bait content can’t win in the long run. People will soon feel the brain rot and they will have to come back to human writing. Until then, keep writing in your little corner of the internet.