The cranky master is at it again. Recently, Dave Winer asked Why are people bored with blogging?. I respect his ideas, but more often than not, I tend to tune out his brand of negativity. His recent small post had me thinking about whether bloggers are really bored. With the rise of tools catering to ever-shorter attention spans, it would appear more like bloggers are lured by new and shiny tools. These tools are prettier and faster to use, so, naturally, bloggers are taking advantage of them (over traditional long-form writing). But, are bloggers bored?

What is boredom anyway? My dictionary defines it as “feeling weary because one is unoccupied or lacks interest in one’s current activity“. How can anyone be bored with telling stories? Is there no end to the wonder of sharing our ideas with each other? As humans, we will never stop sharing. My sense is that new tools like Twitter and Ghost are invigorating the act of telling stories, not causing people to lose interest. Now, you may say that some of these new tools are not open enough, but that isn’t really the point. People will always want to share stories.

I believe bloggers have to keep writing for two reasons. The first is to get better, and the second is to find that elusive voice. The getting better part just kind of happens as long as we keep writing. Finding our voice takes work. Blogging is hard. Sharing and opening up are hard. Through all of this, we discover things about ourselves; Things about the world.

Don’t believe the hype. If you’re struggling, just keep working. Try something different. Spice things up. Don’t use the lame excuse that you’re bored.