I miss reading blogs. Not the sometimes highly polished, magazine length, writing for ad views type we see today, but the decidedly personal versions of years past. I haven’t discovered anything new in ages, and they do seem as was reported starting 3 years ago (and likely before that) a dead form of publishing, at least in the form of “the unedited voice of a person.”

I used to learn so much about these strangers lives and learn so much from what they shared. Much of my early learning about user experience was the result of articles and recommended books on blogs. On the rare occasion that I would get to meet them in real life, it was like connecting with someone I knew for years.

There are still a few I read on a daily basis — John Gruber’s, Tina Roth’s, and Peter Rukavina’s. But while they all have a distinct voice, only Peter shares much of anything about their lives.

Of course, Facebook, Instagram, Vine, Twitter, Periscope, and others I don’t frequent have all taken over the conversations that I used to find on blogs. Algorithms have somewhat unsuccessfully replaced curation. Facebook is where most short form writing and conversations seems to take place. But it’s decidedly impersonal to me, and not as raw as what I read before; its’ like most people on Facebook never have a bad day.

These roughly 250 meandering words with links is where I’ll end; as I ponder why I still on occasion come here to share.