Are Blogs making a comeback?

I have a confession to make. I don't subscribe to bloggers. I don't trawl the internet for articles the way I would trawl TikTok shop. But there was a time, not so long ago, when I did.

Remember 2008? Of course you do, if you're a certain age. Back then, a blog was a diary. We wrote about our thoughts and our feelings, and we pressed "publish" with the reckless optimism of a girl who still believed the right person was just one post away. Gen X and the Millennials remember it fondly, the way you remember a first love: rose-tinted and slightly embarrassing. Even Gen Z, who were barely out of nappies at the time, are nostalgic for it. Who could blame them? It was a world where an algorithm didn't decide who got invited to the party.

But somewhere along the way, blogging got a makeover. Suddenly it was all SEO and optimisation, perfect flat lays and travel photos drenched in a vintage filter that made every sky look like it had been dipped in wee. And like all good makeovers, it came with a catch. We were herded, like cattle in very good shoes, toward the social platforms, which promised us something irresistible: a shortcut to our audience. Our people. Our like-minded.

And it worked, for a while. Then the menu got longer. Products. Ideas. Hot takes. Language. Cleaning products. Life hacks. A day in the life. Get ready with me. Story time about the time I… Calls to action. "What do you think? Tell me in the comments." Hooks, reels, short form, long form. Shadow banned. Gone viral. Ended up on the wrong side of TikTok.

Which got me thinking. When did social media stop being a cocktail party and become an all-you-can-eat buffet?

I couldn't help but wonder… what happened to us?

So I did what any self-respecting woman with a deadline does. I stopped wondering and started reading.

First question: did blogging ever actually leave?

Apparently not. It just changed its outfit. It started going by "newsletter" and moved to Substack, where it's been quietly thriving. Substack now has over 5 million paid subscriptions, though some of those belong to the same person, and as of April 2026, almost 100,000 publications were earning money there, up from 50,000 in May 2025. Blogging didn't die. It simply stopped calling itself blogging, like an ex who changes his name and starts doing yoga.

Second question: why now?

Because we're exhausted, darling. A survey of 1,000 Americans (No UK surveys that I could find) this summer found that 55% post less than they did five years ago, 51% say keeping up an online presence feels like work, and 47% have deleted an app because it caused them stress or anxiety. And here's the line that stopped me mid-sip: when people step away from social media, the most common feeling they report is peace.

Peace. When was the last time an app gave you that?

Businesses have noticed too. One Manchester marketer argued in January that social reach has become unpredictable and emotionally draining, platforms keep changing the rules without warning, and so organisations are rediscovering content they actually own. There's a practical twist as well: well-structured articles suit the way AI-powered search tools surface information. So the blog is back, partly because the robots like reading it. How very modern.

Third question: should we all be blogging just for fun?

There's a whole movement that says yes. They call it the indie web, a small but growing push to build slow, durable, personal corners of the internet that reflect their creators rather than what a feed rewards. One developer described how his own site became work, while all the fun stuff got shouted into the void on Twitter, and how he's now reclaiming his blog to bring his whole self back to it.

Which brings me to the purists, who'd point out that Substack still means letting someone else control your web presence. Even the escape route has a landlord.

So, should we do the thing without a purpose? Maybe the purpose is having no purpose. A blog for fun isn't a strategy. It's a pressure valve. A room of one's own, with a URL.

And yet. Not everyone's ready to leave the party. 16% of people said nothing could make them delete their social accounts. Perhaps the answer isn't breaking up with social media entirely. Perhaps it's a trial separation, where the blog is the place we go home to, and social is just where we pop out for drinks.

I couldn't help but wonder… after years of performing for the algorithm, do we even remember how to write for ourselves?