From the Renaissance to the Future of Blogging

Where Humanism marries Science

Leonardo da Vinci epitomizes the innovation explosion from the Italian Renaissance. Considered to be a genius by many, he was a painter, sculptor, humanist, scientist, architect, philosopher, engineer, and more. In retrospect, this essay briefly examines the influence of technology all the way from Leonardo’s polyglot inventions to Jack Dorsey’s Twitter, to finally discuss the future of blogging.

Indeed, art and culture in the Renaissance would have never flourished without the help of technology. The invention of the printing press in the mid 1400s made the works of great authors widely available. This meant going from a few hand-copied manuscripts to millions books printed by a few machines. The brightest minds were able to communicate forward-thinking ideas to a public that was eager to read on a new memorable form.

This new ability to communicate ideas catalyzed progress and innovation. The first printed books were focused on ideas and concepts in the fields of philosophy, religion and science. The blend of humanism and technology gave birth to objects that are basic in our daily lives today; the eyeglasses, the clock and the newspaper were invented, among many other revolutionary items. Certainly, the printing press and ease of spreading ideas were moving factors to change the world for the better.

Would Leonardo be a blogger today, or is it the end of blogging?

Fast-forward five hundred years, go through incredible technology advancements, and find yourself using this invention called micro-blogging " in its different forms: Twitter, Tumblr, etc. As it was described on our past Medium article, the barriers to sharing are now so low that we all have become publishers. It is then strange to hear about the end of blogging.

Let’s take a look at what social media and micro-blogging have become. The first has evolved to become a cult of personality " “users” reading for or about specific trendsetters. On the other hand, micro-blogging seems to be the right place where to easily dump and over-share. Given these trends, “blogging” is yet to experience a golden age, where long-form, thought-provoking, peer-reviewed ideas are exposed to the right audience and increase the quality standards of self-publishing.

From a behavioral point of view, it is clear that the wide adoption of convenient and mobile media, best illustrated by Twitter, may threaten long-form blogging. Regardless, it can also be argued that as more people use micro-blogging as their daily sharing outlet, they might as well look for one that allows them to share one-time more memorable and deeper ideas, which by nature, do not fit within the micro-blogging space.

Digging into blogging, the fact that Wordpress and Blogger "the two largest blog platforms"do not interconnect their blogs is unfortunate. It is not only bad news for the blogger, who is not heard, but also for the audience that is not able to easily find the blogs it is interested in. Two promising long-form blogging sites are Medium and Svbtle, which do connect blogs on the same platform. However, they entirely focus on the writing experience,which is not something Leonardo would have been fond of as it disregards all of his other beloved forms of expression.

Ideation

The state of long-form blogging is not so dark as the Middle Ages were. Fundamentally, it is the venue where small, influencing communities develop, and in the absence of noise from micro-blogging, their authentic thought grows. Inspired by the Renaissance " rebirth" Gapelia ideates about bringing back to blogging the form that allowed Leonardo to read Plato: a book.

It was a small group of people who found printed books to be the best way in communicating ideas that would later change the world. Today, ideas are told with words, images, videos, music and other arts. This ideation is about the need for a better medium for blogs, one that lives away from the social media space, but is more inter-connected than the latest micro-blogging invention.

We are starting to call it “blogged books”, as a medium for more memorable blogging, and just released an splash website for it.

Reviews

[Stanley Wilson]

Interesting thoughts enjoyed reading

[VALORMORE DE PLUME]

Interesting notion, at least it presents viewpoint of hope for the craft of writing and storytelling. Although the trend of younger readers is to minimize text and content into abbreviated self conscience pleas. Social media is dominated by an ever decreasing vocabulary and attention span. The common thread is, "Please look at me." A revival of interest in storytelling would be a novel idea. (Pun intended)