I think there is value in identifying an author and perhaps reading multiple things they have written. There is then a context for the ideas shared and having this context provides a way to think about what I am reading. Back a few years when educators were first trying to develop online literacy skills, young readers were asked to identify and consider the author as part of evaluating the credibility of what they were reading. It was argued to be important to identify the source.
I think we are losing what might be called source awareness and while it is important to have this context for readers, it is also important to writers. Often, recognition and the awareness of someone’s work is all they get out of the effort they put in.
Here is how I see the progression toward oblivion.
When I first started a blog (2002), after somehow gaining the attention of a few readers the hope was that some readers would add your site to their RSS reader. A reader was now following you and had easy access to what you might write in the future. RSS still exists, but I don’t think those who are now coming to online content use it.
What replaced RSS seems to be links in social media and even more commonly search. A few years ago I added a counter to my main blog. This counter would increment post by post when that post was visited independently of a general visit to the front page of the blog. I started to notice a phenomenon in the pattern of my hits that would not have resulted from regular visits to my site. Older posts that happened to fit a current trending interest (say an AI tool) accumulated hits even if the posts were written before the counter had been installed. The most recent posts did not necessarily get the same attention. Search allowed the entire collection of content to be available, which I guess is good, but this seems different than readers following specific authors.
AI search continues this trend. Whatever I write now ends up being vacuumed up and merged into giant LLMs. The ideas are abstracted, summarized, and combined. People may still read these ideas, but the original context and the identity of the authors is at best added as one source within a list of sources appearing at the end the AI search output or not connected at all. I generate very little ad revenue, but the principle of rewarding or at least recognizing authors for their work is now mostly eliminated. AI functions as an ad blocker and also obscures the source for ideas. I wonder about the long-term consequences of this source of external and internal reward for writing.
I cross-post my blog posts to Medium and I pay to read the work of others on this platform. To host my blogs, I pay approximately $250 a year (Bluehost). I have always valued owning my content and paid to support my writing as a hobby. Yes, $250 a year is an inexpensive hobby. I am struggling with conflicting principles at this point. I want to own my content, but I also want people to know that I have written what I have written. I could just shut down the blogs and rely on Medium or some similar subscription site, but then I am no longer directly sharing my content in a way that I control.
I think it is worth all of us who participate in online content sharing to think about the situation as it has emerged. Perhaps my personal description will encourage this reflection in some. I certainly welcome comments on my observations.