Last month, I typed up some thoughts on the Awl’s shuttering and how it’s a symptom of the “omnivorous, impatient orientation” of the kind of thinking and writing that gets amplified on today’s Internet: “ICQL-driven, algorithmically rewarded anti-content.” I was reminded of that line of thinking when Matt Mullenweg linked to a short write-up by Tom Critchlow on the virtues of “small b blogging.” Critchlow hits the nail on the head here:
I’d contend that too much of what you read on the web is written for large audiences. Too much content on the web is designed for scale, for sharing, for gloss and finish. It’s mass media, whether it’s made by a media company or an individual acting like one. So when people think of blogging their natural reference point is create something that looks like the mass media they’re consuming. Content designed for pageviews and scale.
He aphoristically revisits the point a bit later: “By writing for everyone we write for no one.” Sometimes a weird website like the Awl will try to make it in the Malthusian showdown for eyeballs and attention, but “deliberately obtuse” weather reviews are going to have a tough time in the struggle for existence.