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The Demise of Local Blogs

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Around a month ago I got a phone call from a reporter at Al Qabas newspaper. He was doing a story on the state of the local blogging scene and had some questions he wanted to ask me. On Saturday the article was finally released with a large dramatic headline that roughly translates to “Blogs have Declined by 97% while Instagram Grows and Grows”.

I started blogging back in 2003 when me and a friend started Qhate, which at that time was the first and only blog in Kuwait until Zaydoun launched Kuwait Unplugged soon after. I’m going to sound like a grand parent reminiscing about the past but I’ve seen hundreds of blogs come and go during this time and the whole local blogging community evolve. It wasn’t just us geeks and dorks anymore sitting on a computer and writing into the wee hours of the morning while snacking on Nutella sandwiches. Everyone suddenly wanted to become a blogger and one by one people started setting up their own blogs and posting. Many and by many I mean 97% of them were rubbish either just copying pasting articles from other international blogs or just became a tool for local advertising and media agencies to hawk products and services to readers who were naive enough to fall for the posts.

The fact that blogs in Kuwait have declined by 97% is a good thing.

A lot of people ask me all the time why I haven’t shifted to Instagram. Simple, Instagram isn’t a replacement for blogs.

What I found ironic about the Al Qabas article was how they made it seem like blogging as a medium itself was dying when ironically it’s the newspapers who are the ones suffering because of blogs and other online news sources. I mean the article itself uses a screen capture of my blog from back in 2012 and what I am guessing is a screen capture of The Blogs Lounge from around the same time. Where the hell did they even manage to find a capture of my blog from 2012 and why couldn’t they get a recent one? Newspapers are large companies while blogs are like mom-and-pop stores, we actually care about our posts and readers.

I don’t think of myself as a great writer and I never pretend to be one either. But I can tell you one thing and that is the fact that I dedicate every waking hour to this blog trying to find something to write about so everyone else can read it. It’s in my head all the time, everything I do everywhere I go I’m always looking for something to write about. It’s taken over my life and my thinking process. It’s become my life actually. It’s so difficult for me to focus on something because I’m always distracted, I’m always reading, I’m always trying to absorb as much information as I can hoping one thing or another will trigger an idea for a new post. It’s a challenge every single day because this is Kuwait and not a lot of things happen here. It’s exhausting and sometimes I just wish I didn’t have this blog just so that I could shift my focus onto other projects.

But I love it, I love what I do and I love how I somehow manage to find stuff to write about on a daily basis and I’ve been doing this for over ten years now. It’s something I’m really good at and as long as I can keep coming up with interesting content for my readers this is something I am going to keep doing.

So yes most of the blogs in Kuwait are dead but mine isn’t and I’m not going anywhere.

52 replies on “The Demise of Local Blogs”

I like your passion about your blog and all I can say is that your blog has become a very important source of information about what is happening in Kuwait or anything related to Kuwait which is just awesome… I am happy to read that you are not going anywhere and I’m sure that many people are 🙂

“or just became a tool for local advertising and media agencies to hawk products and services to readers who were naive enough to fall for the posts.”

This +10, plus they always and I mean always eventually end up as a dead blog sooner or later, I facepalm every time I read a press release on a local blog.

Some newspaper however realized the decline of their traditional news and almost shifted completely online, making them survive the next generation, Al Qabas however isn’t one of them, their website is confusing and poorly programmed and is missing a lot of features.

Kuwaitiful commenting on 248.am is like Oreo topping on Nutella Cake 😀
You both are my all time favs. and I hope you guys keep doing the amazing work! & Thank you for bringing us new stuff everyday!

@Kuwaitiful, I totally agree.. Al Qabas in particular shouldn’t be talking negatively about blogs, or anything else for that matter.

And good blogs like 248am and Kuwaitiful will live on no matter what.

And yes Mark, the fact that 97% of blogs in Kuwait are dying is a actually a good thing, I call it “Survival of the Fittest”.

Congratulations! 😊 I’m sure your readers (myself included) would not want you to go anywhere either so I wish you more prolific years of writing.

Internet technologies get replaced. Our generation knows what a blog is, the next one probably doesn’t. They know twitter and Instagram, and perhaps a few other things I never heard of.

Blogging is going the way of IRC and web forums. They still exists, but mostly irrelevant. Blogging is becoming irrelevant too.

Your blog is good, but it’s the only one I read.

But I don’t think that’s the case. IRC got replaced by other technology that allowed you to do the same thing but either better or easier. Instagram, twitter, facebook etc.. aren’t replacing all the blogs, they’re replacing personal blogs. My blog isn’t a personal blog, it’s evolved into something completely different.

I prefer to call my site a news source, an entertainment or informative website. And once you categorize it like that you realize these aren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Maybe in the future there will be another way for people to consume the news and once that technology is created I will be more than happy to move to it but instagram isn’t that, you can’t read an article on instagram or twitter.

Your content is great, but you must consider moving beyond text and images and more sections.. Let me tell you an example. Sometimes you post about some product, or about some place. Yes, your post informs me about the existence of the place or product, but if I am interested, I go to youtube and watch an unboxing or a review video. Perhaps you should consider that?

Well I’m a one man show so I can only do what I am capable of. I love video but I’m horrible when it comes to working with footage and I also don’t think I would be a great video personality either. So thats why I never did videos, I’ve tried a few times and failed miserably.

But then again I also know my readers are smart and sophisticated and like you pointed out, if you find something that interests you then you go ahead and dig into it deeper with your own research. That’s what I do myself and I so expect that to happen and I regularly link out to other sources who dig deeper or have more photos or videos etc..

I would rather work along side the rest of the internet instead of trying to be the whole internet myself if that makes any sense.

That article is baseless and dumb. Your blog is awesome! It is the best blog around. I’m glad you’re not going anywhere <3

This is why I check your blog about 10 times a day. I really do appreciate all your hard work, although you do get on my nerves sometimes :p I wouldn’t have it any other way. We are all lucky to have such an amazing blogger, thank you.

Here’s wishing you another 10 years at least because I’ve enjoyed the last 10 reading what you had.

I’m pretty up to date with everything in Kuwait and I do not even have an instagram account – ok, maybe I don’t know the latest price of the stud goat at kabd or the 15,000 KD pigeon. In fact, even that I’m sure I’ll get to know on your blog sooner or later 🙂

So screw instagram, 248am is the bomb.

Mark … I am in New York … And i have been reading your blogs since last 5 years & there been not a single day that i have been board from your work … Because u work hard not copy and paste …. Till the age of 8 i was in Kuwait and you keep my distance from Kuwait to NY very close …. !!! Thanks long live 248AM ..!!

You are actually a good writer.

I have been a follower since 2006. You have been doing this for a long time. You are smart because you know what works. I am sure you know your writing has improved. It has to with the amount of posts. You know what needs to be done and you do it.

Not only writing, your photography has also taken a drastic change to the better. All someone has to do is compare old pics to new ones and the difference is there.

This blog is still around stronger than ever becasue of the amount of work and investment you put in it.

There is a mixup…

a large number of Kuwaiti blogs were nothing but advertisement pages. These kinds of blogs were mostly lifeless and they’re the ones that switched to Instagram.

Some of the very interesting blogs that dealt with local issues have died and did not make the switch to twitter or instagram. They died because of two or three specific incidents that have made bloggers decide to go silent. We have all lost when they quit blogging because the level of discussions taking place at that time was very high and the standard was good.

I started reading your blog back in high school in 2006. Since then I’ve finished high school, university, graduate studies (Masters), got engaged, and recently got married and I have been reading your blog throughout all that time, in addition to the side blogs you’ve had over that time (even sent a few e-mails back and forth and contributed a bit it in the forums).

Not to make you feel old, I just thought I’d share that your blog has been a daily source of knowledge and entertainment for me for quite some time, even while I was living outside of Kuwait for an extended period of time. I’m sure this is also the case with several other readers.

Thanks for all the hard work Mark and keep it up!

I think the main reason most of those other blogs died is because they were crap. Most of them were owned by Kuwaitis who dont speak very good English (there is nothing wrong with that) but insisted on posting in English anyway.That and they way all of them posted the same stuff almost every day as if they were a bunch of Arab lemmings.

You on the other hand have always been witty,critical when you need to be, and are bilingual which helps a lot when you are addressing a mixed audience. Keep up the good work since Kuwait needs blogs like yours since there are very few alternative websites or blgs where one can get their daily news and stay on top of everythingthats going on in kuwait

It’s amazing that you’ve been able to keep articles coming for so long, and as you said, about Kuwait. I’m glad we have someone here in Kuwait willing to keep the rest of us informed about random things.. Your blog often comes as one of the top results when I search for something on Google about Kuwait.. Like “Where to find quinoa in Kuwait?” So thanks for helping us out with these little things 🙂

Also the reason this blog works well is you have readers with a vast amount of experience in EVERYTHING.

For example, you post about Visa Regulations in Kuwait, however the comments start of on the subject, shifts to religion, then suddenly takes a an unexpected shift towards food, someone then jumps in and says Big Mo is not a real rapper, then suddenly everyone is advising you to sue Benihana again, Farah the lawyer comes to the rescue and says no no no, don’t do that. Then out of the dark someone remembers how expats save this country and all hell breaks loose.

All that while a number of people scrutinize and check for grammatical errors in your post.

🙂

Visited your blog for the first time in 2008 when the Latina Mina drunk on air episode took place, been hooked ever since.

Most of us know that a particular page on Facebook copies shamelessly from your blog and thus has a fan following of over 400k and doesn’t even provide the mandatory courtesy of mentioning your blog. I’d say you’re influencing fb and Instagram posts by others and that’s what makes you irreplaceable.

Thank you Mark!

Your blog basically is the kickstart to my days. Your passion for it is very well apparent in the range and detail of everything that goes onto 248am. So just keep up the good work and nurture the fire within.

A sore subject for me personally, and thank you Mark for the shout-out! My blog – Kuwait Unplugged – ran out of steam for the reasons below, in no particular order:

1) I felt that I was just repeating myself, railing against the same things (corruption, Islamists, parliament, government) week in and week out. And I got tired of it

2) Readers’ attentions shifted elsewhere and I got less interaction with my posts. Blogs thrive on reader feedback and without it I felt like I was just talking to myself

3) I realize now that the shift to posting in (mostly) Arabic gained me much more readers, but they were the ones with the short attention spans.

4) Regarding local politics, many far superior blogs appeared with bold writing and attention to detail that I never had

5) My switch from PC to Mac in 2007, made posting in Arabic difficult because the Arabic Mac keyboard makes no sense. So I slowed down

6) I hate to admit this, but social media turned me into a surfing zombie at the expense of my writing

I still miss it but I can’t seem to bring myself to resurrect it. I’ve kept the blog open and the entire archive is there for all to browse through. I often go back to certain posts to remind myself of what I had to say about a certain topic

I guess all good things come to an end 🙁

We love you Mark for all the hard work you do for your blog. I along with my family members are checking your blogs on daily basis. While in India, on our summer vacation, this year and every year before, your blog was the vital source to connect to Kuwait. We respect you for honesty and writing skills.
Lot of changes have taken place in blogging world in Kuwait. We see changes in your blog too. While we appreciate all new sections, one thing we miss is the interactive part of Classified section. That was fun really!
PS: Any chance of bringing it back, Mark?

Well, I check your blog almost everyday, and I like the fact that you didn’t shift to instagram as well as respecting your readers by not posting paid posts as your own opinion like other “instagram stars” or bloggers.
keep it up 🙂

I feel sad about this decline, I was following blogs since 2004, I tried to blog my self but I was great lousy one ;).. I used to be excited to read other people diary rather than the anylysist and the philosophist.. There was this Kuwaitis blog father called Nabeq who makes meetings and have all blogs in one site .. Now even this guy I lost track of him and his site is down .. They used to have anonymous blogger it was really halirious … Some bloggers has been taking into investigations in the last three years that made them stop and their fellow friends stop also .. I noticed the biggest decline was after twitter where most bloggers felt more close to their audience and write much frequent and little and I’m talking about the most bloggers who were in political and nagging business … The genuine bloggers for me they were the ones who write their diaries I used to love them like ra-1 and her brother, I want to be astronaut.. Ahhh old nice gold days.. But any how I feel there is a day where a new generation from Kuwait gonna rise for blogging to find it a anynomous diary rather than sultana way to earn money… Like YouTube there is kuwaities who picked up the trend there to share their views… Any how the people I miss are kuwaitism, zaydound, and the guy graphiti with this egyption comedian actor and all the three has passed away.. The girls with personal diaries once they get married they stop.. But the pages of old blogs like the perfume that reminds you of moments of your life

The local blogging scene has collapsed because there was no substance to hold it up. “Bloggers” thought they could post pictures of their dessert at Paul and make money doing it. No effort, no thought means no value for readers.

It really depends what the blog is about. If it’s repetitive information that we’ve seen in local news then I can see why they’re more and more irrelevant. Your blog has remained original in content and this is what keeps readers coming back. My blog was about a photo here and there and some commentary. Instagram replaces most of it and in my case has definately contributed to me not writing my stories anymore. An image and a quick bite is probably more suited for today’s social media.

Keep it up, Mark.

I’ve very recently wrote a post on my blog titled Death of the Blogger. In it I discussed the actual decline of blog writers and readers and how and why that was affected by the newer social media. I also discussed that blogs are far from dead if you really give it a though. They actually are more alive that social networks (or even newspapers as you’ve mentioned).

The thing is, I contacted one of the “experts” they interviewed in that article asking about how accurate those numbers of Kuwaiti blogs and the percentage they claimed blogging has declined and where they got those numbers from. I got no answer!

Mark, I love your blogs! Keep going, ignore the pricks. I read your post or check then twice a day, it’s become a routine now that I look forward to. Keep it up!

Mark, I love your blogs! Keep going, ignore the pricks. I read your post or check then twice a day, it’s become a routine now that I look forward to. Keep it up!

Good luck man; you’re a wolf amongst the sheep.

My blog targets a very small audience and is limited in its subject however I do it for the love of the blues and as long as the passion is there, blogs will survive.

That’s the kind of attitude we need around here, and true I stopped reading newspapers since most of the information is incorrect and aside from newspapers now we have local magazine that rip off local bloggers for content ..
It’s a bit hard for m to explain what blogging means to me but instagram is an aiding tool and a main concern at the moment ..

I miss when people used to actually have something intelligent to say, twitter tries its best to pretend that the ideal persons memory should be the equivalent to that of a goldfish and instagram is designed for the idiots who need pictures because words are too complicated.

This statement would be impossible on modern social media, it’s probably beyond half of the social media experts and gurus as well…..

Well said Mark. Well written and expressed and your observations obviously come from a place of passion.

Well done mate, good on you.

Best,

S.

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