Blog

Does anyone still read blogs? And if they do, does anyone comment on them? And if they do, does anyone read the comments?! I think blogs are dieing out. Which is a shame. But then I always liked to write a good long letter.

Has the tweet taken over from the blog - well it could - it's quick and requires less thinking than a blog or an email and it appeals to a desire for instant gratification and recognition. Meanwhile Facebook is still trundling along fulfilling the younger hunger to sound off without having to look anyone directly in the eye.

The world has developed an unfortunate lack of patience. Twitter and Facebook were the natural move for the text generation. With a restricted character count - ideal for those with restricted characters - there's no time for meandering and embroidery, just make your point and get out of there. The electronic communication equivalent of 'knock-a-door-run-away'.

We live so fast.

Cue the sound of distant drums and a lone cornet warbling... but when I started out in advertising we didn't even have computers! It used to take at least two weeks to get a full page colour ad processed and colour proofed. We used to send them out in the post! But think about it, if you've got to wait two weeks until you see the fruits of your labour you make damn sure of the details in it, and you double-check all your artwork and approvals before you send it off. These days I can set up an ad, get a pdf off to the client for approval and get the finished artwork pdf off to the publication in under half an hour. Then send a replacement with copy alts in under half an hour. Then send a replacement with copy alts in under half an hour. Ad finitum.

And what about the future for emails? In the business world, as in the social world, they have taken the place of phone calls or face-time. They are grown-up texts so that grown-ups can avoid actually talking to each other. We're losing the art of conversation.

But then there's skyping - in a rapidly shrinking business world, accelerated by the state of the UK transport system and the time involved in international travel - skype is gradually taking the place of on-site meetings. While I'm typing this there's an idea-sharing skype meeting going on between our creatives and the creatives in our French office, incroyable! My only issue with it is that try as you might you never seem to be looking directly at the person you're conversing with. It's like trying to look at yourself on the cctv camera as you walk into Asda, it never quite works.

Anyway, I love a considered blog, or a well-crafted email, me. Not full of text-speak and strange little faces on their side that look like they have fallen over. But the kind that are like good old-fashioned letters, with the added benefit of the opportunity to edit and paste until the content is hound to perfunction. (And spell checked.)

So what's the secret to writing a good blog? Well, they're all different, but in my opinion it's all a matter of putting yourself into the reader's position and actually reading stuff as you write it - considering the reader.

And that takes time. Has anyone got any?