I’m back. Kinda? – A Decluttered Mind

It’s one of those nostalgia-filled nights. Somehow, I ended up reminiscing about the heyday of blogging during the mid-2000s to early 2010s. Boy, that was a special time.

Back then, only a handful of people had smartphones, and mobile internet was considered a luxury for most. Back then, people were not slaves of doomscrolling. Back then, people actually read.

But now, almost everything is catered to the constantly shortening human attention span. People can no longer read anything longer than 2 paragraphs. And if they do, it would be a miracle if they could comprehend what they read. Everything is reduced to short-form videos because we have somehow evolved with an incredible inability to focus on something for more than 30 seconds. The internet has turned us into mindless zombies without us realizing it.

But I am overgeneralizing, of course. Blogging may no longer be the king of the internet, but I still see many people express themselves through writing, only this time via their respective social media accounts. It still serves the same purpose, but somehow the feeling is different. If there’s one thing I love about blogging, aside from the freedom it gives me, it’s the sense of belonging. It’s being part of a community.

Posting your thoughts on your social media account is straightforward – you have an opinion that you want to share, and so you share it. With blogging, on the other hand, writing feels more intentional. You’re writing not only for yourself, but also for your audience. Gen Z would call it being performative. I call it caring about your readers.

So does this post signify a return to blogging? I honestly don’t know yet. I’m at a stage in my life where time is a finite resource. I am no longer that free-spirited bachelor living under my parents’ roof. I am now a father of 2 under 2, struggling every day to cling to the last thread of sanity.

On the flip side, writing has always been my outlet – my break from the chaos. It’s always meaningful to pause and look back.

This felt nice.