long live the blog

I've been thinking recently, and the question has come up, why blogging over facebook notes? Or contrastingly, some people prefer facebook notes over blogging. Well here are a couple thoughts I have, and some reasons why I prefer blogging over facebook notes.

First of all I think that facebook notes serve a different purpose from blogging...for me at least. I think many people use facebook notes for the same purpose as blogging, but for me I don't think they should have the same purpose. The purpose of facebook notes in my eyes are to write simple little notes that then go up on all of your friend's newsfeeds for all of them to read. Facebook notes in my eyes just seem common and overused. I am never really motivated to read a note on facebook, especially if it is more than 2 paragraphs long. I mean, I have hundreds of friends on facebook and every single one of those friends has a chance to read that note, therefore it just loses value for me. It is somewhat hard to explain, but blogs are just so much different. If someone is reading my blog then I know that it is someone who at least mildly cares, or at the least care more about how I'm doing than if it were someone on facebook. Why? Because for people to read my blog they have to go to my website, then click on my blog link. It is not integrated into any social network in any way, it is its own independent site, so just by the fact that they visit that site says something. And if someone is reading my blog consistently it means that they are subscribed to it in their RSS reader which means that they've taken even more time to keep up with me. I think there is just much more personal value in blogging.

Secondly, facebook notes are just so stinking unattractive. It is so hard for me to sit there and read a facebook notes because I feel like my eyes are bleeding. I mean, not that facebook GUI is extremely unattractive but in a note the font is just so small and and I almost have to squint to be able to read it. Plus when I take a first look at a facebook note it is so intimidating if it is more than 2 paragraphs long because it just seems like so much because the font is so small. It really does annoy the heck out of me. Now granted, the background on my blog is white, and some may say that is boring, but it just has such a more personal feel to it, and at least my font isn't size 0.2. Ok, so that was a bit of an exaggeration but you get my point. Or maybe you don't...

Here's my point, if you write a facebook note I am less likely to read it than if you write a blog post. Sure I may see your note in my newsfeed, and I might click on the link to go to it, but the chances of me sitting there and actually reading it the whole thing are pretty slim. Like I said, I do think that facebook notes have their place, because they are very helpful to get some important information out to a bunch of people at one time. There is also a feature in notes that allows you to mention people in your note. I think this was originally designed for the purpose of if you actually did mention one of your friends in your note then you could let them know that, but now it has evolved into mentioning a long list of people because then they get a direct notification about the note, so they are more likely to read it. So I think facebook notes have their purposes, but I do not think that one of those purposes is to "blog" your daily or weekly thoughts. An actual blog is so much better for that purpose. Imagine that, a blog is good for blogging. Crazy.

What do you like better? Notes? Blogs?

Long live blogging.