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 In 2026, is blogging redundant? 

Please forgive the way that I look in this photo; I was sick, malnourished, and lacking sleep. 

But I ask myself regularly, "is blogging redundant?" And even if it is,  I am still going to do it.

In order to answer that question, I feel as though I must take us back to 2011.

2011 was marked by seemingly endless stretches of being alone. 

Thinking about it now is actually terrifying. Thinking about how alone I found myself constantly, and how I spent countless hours waiting for buses that only came every two hours just puts a pit in my stomach. I was so vulnerable. My asking to be safe was framed as being "dependent,"  "whiny," and "spoiled." The fact that no one ever expressed concern about my being vulnerable really gives me pause in 2026. Mind you, most of the time I was alone, I was in a semi-rural area with limited cell phone service, and this was before I got my touch-screen smartphone the following year. It's legitimately bone chilling.

I also think that 2011 was my most creative.  I went through countless sketchbooks. I was really drawing some of the most interesting and detailed things that I've ever done. I had a thriving webcomic. I also had multiple blogs. Of course I had my LiveJournal, but I also had 3 Tumblr  very public blogs at one point.  Even when I sit down to draw now, almost nothing happens. My mind is so busy now. Back then because I had the sit-down time, I drew endlessly, I listened to the amazing albums that came out that year wishing that I could write my own records, and I found time to write blogs.  Of course, I did not have a smart phone, and thus writing and checking blogs was something that required dedicated efforts. I had to actually physically sit at a computer and write. I still do all of my writing on a computer (I am a millennial that way I suppose). 

My blogs were always customized, but they were never glossy. I was never really interested in that sort of a thing, because I wanted something that reflected me as an "internet home" sort of a way, and not in a "look at me" way. I wanted a space that reflected me.

Tumblr was really out there Tumblr-ing in 2011. Tumblr was also so different from the way that LiveJournal was. LiveJournal was more about introspection, journaling, and had some degree of privacy Tumblr was much closer to the other social media that we have now, that is it was easy to share, easy to spread misinformation, was highly shaped by now aesthetic you could make something look. Appearing to be cool on Tumblr was a thing. It was always wholly laughable to see someone in the wild who very clearly was "big on Tumblr."

Had Tumblr not been such an unbearably toxic space, I feel as thought it would have been the most perfect platform.  Sadly, it absolutely was not.

Tumblr, for all its morbid toxicity, was so appealing in so many other ways that mattered in making of one's internet home, such as being wholly customizable. You could share photos, collections of photos, videos (through uploads or external imbed formats), audio (same story), or blog-style posts. For many young people, it was a very seminal experience that they shaped their identities around, and planted themselves firmly in any one of its numerous subcultures.

Substack, on the other hand, the modern premiere space for blogging, has perhaps one of the ugliest and least-appealing websites  I have ever seen. Even how large and unappealing the font is is such a huge yuck to me. Sure, I thought, THIS cannot be the new space where people go to write and other people come to read it... right?!

Today I read an article about Substack being in hot water for what they allow to run freely on their platform (I will not be linking). It got me thinking to how blogging never really went away, it just rephrased itself. I don't have a Substack (although there are a small handful that I read casually). I am just not sure what sets Substack out from any other blogging platform.  I don't see anything particular about Substack that makes it so appealing, when it's literally just inviting your friends and strangers to receive emails about your various rantings deposited directly into their inboxes. 

Then I realized that, like Patreon, you can  also charge people to read your nonsense. Instead of using ads the way many traditional sites and blogs do, you can charge  premium. I don't know what about this strikes me as so particularly annoying. 

It's one thing, I suppose, if you're an author writing a story, or you write for a major publication. Or, as another example, you're writing a blogpost on your Patreon for your Patreons who are also getting other things as rewards other than being blessed with your writings. But making people pay for your opinions? Holy crap, no.

So, to answer my own question, no, I don't think that blogging is either outdated nor redundant in 2026, but charging people to read blogs is. :)