History Is Written By The Bloggers
The process of telling stories often culminates when we share what we have with the world.
Hi everyone!
After two weeks, my body finally acclimated to the summer. Weather updates and advisories on Instagram prepared me for coming heat waves. Memes and reels validated my experiences of simmering in my room. The heat isn’t just in my head! It’s real!!
Seeing posts and videos online helped me feel less alone. For this edition of ZERO PERCENT SUGAR, I explore the history of posting our little thoughts online. Enjoy 🍹
Reading time: 8 minutes
During my recent hiatus for ZERO PERCENT SUGAR, I read my old posts. FYI: they’re really cringey. Most of my analyses lack nuance; grammatical errors litter the page; the reading experience feels less like an easy flow and more like a bumpy off-road trip. I was just about to crawl into the pit of shame. But, I pulled myself together. Instead of looking at these posts as relics of my dark past, I saw them as snapshots of my early days in writing.
The thing with writing on the Internet is everything’s permanent. Even if I deleted all my blog posts, they would live somewhere in Substack’s cache. Imagine if someone unearthed all those old blog posts twenty years from now.
But, if I wasn’t the strongest writer then, why did I still publish my barely-formed thoughts? What is it about sharing our thoughts — no matter HOW we even come up with them — so appealing?
The History of Blogging
The first blog was created in 1994. It wasn’t even called a blog back then. Swarthmore undergrad Justin Hall created links.net, a website collating his favorite links into one page coded in vanilla HTML and CSS. At the time, people called Hall’s blog a “personal home page” and Hall, “a Web diarist,” since “blog” and “blogger” weren’t words yet. The same year, Claudio Pinhanez started publishing writing in what he called an “Open Diary.”
Fast forward to 1997. Jorn Barger first used the term “weblog” to chronicle the “log” of his Internet usage. A year later, in 1998, the first blogging platforms emerged. OpenDiary launched in October of that year. Unlike Hall’s personal home page which just focused on Hall’s writing, OpenDiary allowed people from all over the world to comment on a piece of writing, which laid the foundations for social media.
1999 was a big year for early blogging. Peter Merholz used the word “blog” for the first time. Blogging sites that would later dominate the landscape, such as Xanga, Blogger, and LiveJournal were launched. Then, the early 2000s marked the widespread rise of blogging. TypePad and WordPress were launched in 2003.
Traditional blogging, which involved long-ish prose, soon evolved into multimedia blogging. 2005 saw the birth of YouTube, which ushered in video blogging — or, “vlogging.” In 2006, Jack Dorsey published the first tweet, which introduced microblogging, or blogging more often but with fewer (and, if I’m being honest, less thought-out) words. Tumblr, which follows this format, launched in 2007. Instagram followed suite in 2010.
I started blogging around 2008 or 2009, when I got my first laptop. Like most teen girls in the 2010s, I signed up for Tumblr, Facebook, and Instagram. These platforms gave me a fun way to connect with people through similar interests (like fandom), books, and music. I made friends with strangers (much to my parents’ shock later on) and frolicked around anonymous message boards like Reddit. Back then, the Internet was a Wild Wild West. There were hints of what would come in the 2020s.
Blogging in the 2020s
Okay. So blogging isn’t really a thing in the 2020s. It’s now called “content,” an umbrella phrase for any form of media that delivers information. This term, along with its offshoot “content creation” gained popularity during the rise of microblogging and vlogging. These platforms favort frequency and a lack of polish (a.k.a. authenticity) over perfectly produced thousand-word entries.
What’s also noteworthy about content creation is that businesses are getting in on it. You could argue that businesses have always used writing and content to promote their products. Just look at all of the PR articles, newspaper ads, and events! But, blogging started off as a personal endeavor in the late 1990s. Even in the early 2010s, company blogs lacked the appeal of personal blogs. I followed individual artists and fan accounts more than official media franchise blogs on Tumblr.
Something clicked once social media hit a tipping point. Soon our feeds started featuring more ads and sponsored blog posts. Companies realized that our attention spans were getting shorter and that more people left digital footprints on their browser history. Big Tech, like Meta (Facebook and Instagram), Google, Twitter, and more, gave businesses tools to market online, such as ads and analytics. Blogging changed from a fun, chaotic community into a marketing vehicle. This shift also made the average content creator a bit more buttoned up. While I sound cynical here, I appreciate the upsides of this model.
Bloggers, content creators, and influencers can make a living by doing what they love! I roll my eyes whenever a YouTube ad pops up at the start of the video. But! I resist clicking the “skip” button because ads and sponsorships allow my favorite vloggers to make more videos.
Some companies even challenge the mainstream way of making money through advertising on content. Substack and Patreon allow creators to offer subscriptions to their audiences. Daisie focuses on live video courses, while Skillshare does on-demand video courses. I’m excited to see where the future of content creation/blogging/writing things on the Internet takes us next.
The Human Urge To Tell Stories
Blogging evolved from a humble endeavor to document visited hyperlinks into the media machine that defines the 21st century (so far). When we peel back the layers of data analytics, affiliate programs, and SEO keywords, we’re left with the reason behind why we blog. This is going to sound cliché, but I’m going to say it: storytelling.
Stories make the world make sense. Our ancestors used myths and legends to explain the natural world before scientific advancements and research. World leaders today employ stories to gain support from their constituents. We use stories every day to package ourselves in job interviews and bond with our loved ones. Storytelling helps us shape our reality by shifting our perspective of it.
The process of telling stories often culminates when we share what we have with the world. Ancient philosophers shared their work through community debates and conversations (see: the Socratic Seminar). In the 11th century, a Russian boy named Onfim drew stick figures, perhaps of his friends, on a piece of birch bark. Today, we hold our breaths before clicking the “post” button on social media. The act of publishing gives us ownership of our point of view. It allows us to write the world as we see it and helps us find others who see the world similarly.
Shared Narratives
Blogging is the perfect exercise for the mind. Writing allows me to unload and examine my thought processes. Writing with the intention of publishing, rather than private journaling, forces me to assemble and reflect on my thoughts. Can my reader understand the flow of events in the narrative? Am I using the most appropriate words?
Blogging bridges the gap between our personal histories and public response. It helps us take control of our stories in a way that’s accessible and easy to do for everyone.
So, what now? 🤷🏽♀️
A few friends approached me and said that they wanted to start a blog of their own. TBH, starting this Substack was the best thing I did for my career and creative practice this time last year (ZERO PERCENT SUGAR turns 1 in a few days). I don’t have a million followers (yet) and I haven’t monetized this blog. However, I made new friends and learned a new skill to serve me well for the rest of my career. This sounds really dramatic, but blogging altered the trajectory of my life 🥴
Go start that blog.
(also, thank you HubSpot for teaching me about the history of blogging)