The Message Behind the Medium of a Personal Blog

I’ve been reading Neil Postman’s Amusing Ourselves to Death . What do I say about that book? It’s a seminal piece, even more relevant today than when it was written in the 80’s.

In the beginning of the book, he talks about how the form of any communication shapes its content. For example: you can’t use smoke signals to communicate philosophically.

In today’s world, we have media forms that are well suited to fragmented conversation.

Cultures without speed-of-light media…do not have news of the day. Without a medium to create its form, the news of the day does not exist. (8)

Twitter, anyone? But I digress.

Each medium of communication — the spoken word, painting, television, social media — influences culture.

Each medium…makes possible a unique mode of discourse by providing a new orientation for thought, for expression, for sensibility. [This] is what McLuhan meant in saying the medium is the message.

When I read this I thought: if “the medium is the message”, what’s the message behind the medium of a personal blog?

I’m thinking narrowly here. Not a corporate blog run by individuals and backed by an organization. And not an individual blog that’s hosted on a platform, like Medium. I’m asking, specifically, about an “indie” blog—a blog written and run by an individual who owns the domain and controls their own content.

Given that kind of blog, what’s the intrinsic message communicated in that medium?

I’m not sure, but these are the thoughts that come to my mind:

• Each voice is individual and matters
• Slow is ok
• Diversified and independent is good
• Not fitting a pattern is ok
• Not being easily commodified is ok

If you believe the above, well, it’s time start blogging. You won’t have to say the above to communicate it: the form already carries the message.