1. Writing has become a drag. Why spend two to four hours conceiving an idea and putting it into words, when you can simply share your life on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook?
2. Twitter. It's dynamic, densely populated and it only takes 140 characters to send a thought or update across. And there's always a receptive audience who is ready to click the re-tweet and favorite buttons, or respond to the tweets you sent.
3. Economy of words. Yours truly, has become more verbose. And it's no fun having cerebral tussle when the heart of your blog entry no longer touches your readers.
4. Martha Stewart Effect. These days, I tend to write more about the house plants outside my window, or finding ways on how to prepare for natural calamities, than sinking my head into the pits of a destitute life. I know someone who goes into a sex frenzy when he's high on E, and in all honesty, his life stirs more drama and struggle than mine. Sadly, he no longer blogs.
5. Language. Mahirap kumonek sa mga readers kapag ang drama mo sa blog ay magpaka-elitista sa wikang sinusulat - kahit ang wish mong i-share na karanasan ay ang pagtambay sa jologs na Uni-Top Department Store sa may Nagtahan.
6. Style over essence. When a writer spends more time doing revisions, (grammar check, identifying appropriate words to capture the experience, fleshing out the details, re-reading entire paragraphs, so they may sound musically to the ears) there's a big chance the entry won't get published. Instead, it would linger in the drafts folder. Unloved and forgotten.
7. A lazy reader is a lazy blogger. I don't blog hop as I used to when Bloggers rule social media. I even refrain from responding to comments, saving my energy instead when it's my turn to check the blogs of those who left words on my comment box. With an attitude like this, how can you expect one to write as religiously as he did in the past?
8. Distraction. Need I say more? Sims 3 Supernatural awaits when I get home.
9. Catharsis. A good entry takes readers on a journey. Stories do not merely tell, they must evoke emotions, or at least a sense of attachment. That's what we've been told in the graduate school, and for many years, it was the anchor of my journal. But I am getting tired of doing joyrides, or if I do, there's a lingering feeling that it's not the journey I had in my head. For this reason, I am dissuaded from writing and instead, become a reader like many bloggers before me.
10. Many people I know have already left the blogsphere. Their dust-covered words are like artifacts dating back from the time of their soul-searching days.