Wane as the young Blogs comes to sites like Twitter

"I don't use my blog anymore," said Mr. McDonald, who lives in San Francisco. "All the people that I'm trying to reach are on Facebook".

Blog once had the choice for people who wanted to express themselves online. But with the rise of sites like Facebook and Twitter, they are losing their fascination for many people — especially the younger generations.

The Internet and American Life Project, Pew Research Center found that from 2006 to 2009, blogging among children aged 12-17 have halved; 14 percent of children in these age groups who use the Internet now blogs. Among 18-to-54-year-olds, the project said in a report last year, blogging dropped 2% in 2010 from two years earlier.

Former blogger said that they were too busy to write long posts and uninspired by a lack of readers. Others said that they had no interest in creating a blog because of social networking has done a good enough job keeping them in touch with friends and family.

Blogging started his rapid rise about 10 years ago as services such as Blogger and LiveJournal became popular. So many people started blogging — to share stories, political rant about dieting and celebrate their love of cats — that Merriam-Webster dictionary declared "blog" the word of the year in 2004.

The definition of a blog is difficult, but most people think that is a website where people publish periodically the entries in reverse chronological order and allow readers to leave comments.

Yet for many Internet users, blogging is more personal and opinionated writing style. A number of news sites and comments started as blog before you grow into mini-media empires, like The Huffington Post or Silicon Alley Insider, which are virtually indistinguishable from traditional news sources.

Blog went largely unchallenged until Facebook redesigned the behaviour of consumers, with its multi-purpose hub for posting all social. Twitter, which allows messages of no more than 140 characters, has also contributed to the upheaval.

It is no longer a blog to connect with the world in need of Internet users. Instead, they could post hotfixes complain about the weather, links to articles that infuriated the them, comment on news events, share photos or promoting certain causes — all the things I wanted to make a blog.

In fact, small talk moved largely social networking, said Elisa Camahort Page, co-founder of BlogHer, network of blogs for women. Still, blogs remain a home further discussion meaty said.

"If you're looking for the conversation, you turn to blogs," said ms. Camahort page. "You're not going to find it on Facebook, and you're not going to find it in 140 characters on Twitter".

Lee Rainie, Director of Internet and American Life Project says that blogging is not dying, like moving with the times. Entrepreneurs have taken some publicized by blogging features and fabric into other types of services.

"The Act of telling your story and share part of your life with someone is alive and well — even more so than at the dawn of blogging," said Mr. Rainie. "You just morphing to other platforms."

The blurring of the lines is evident among users of Tumblr. Although Tumblr calls himself a blogging service, many users are unaware of the description and are not considered bloggers — raise the possibility that the decline in blogging within the younger generation is simply a question of semantics.

Kim Hou, senior high school in San Francisco, said she quit blogging, months ago, but he acknowledged that he continued to post photographs of fashion on Tumblr. "Is different from blogging because it is more easy to use," he said. "With blogging is to write, and this is just images. Some people write a few sentences or some quotes, but that's it. "

The effect is seen on the companies providing the blogging platforms. Blogger, owned by Google, has been less unique visitors in the United States in December that he had a year earlier — a decline of 2% to 58.6 million — although overall, Bloggers of single visitors rose 9%, to EUR 323 million.

LiveJournal, a blogging service, decided to emphasize the community. Connect people who share an interest in celebrity gossip, for example, provides social interaction that blogging "classic" is missing, said Its Rosenstock, a spokeswoman for LiveJournal, which is owned by SUP, a Russian online media company. "Blogging can be a very lonely occupation; Write the bottomless pit, "he said.

But some blogging services like Tumblr and WordPress seems to have avoided any decline. Toni Schneider, chief executive of Automattic, the company that sells the blogging software WordPress, explains that WordPress is mainly for serious bloggers, not the young novices who are abandoning social networking.

In any case, said bloggers often use Facebook and Twitter to promote their blog post to a wider audience. Rather than being competitors, he said, are complementary.

"There's a lot of fragmentation," said Mr. Schneider. "But at this point, who is taking seriously the blogging — are using different means to get a great deal of their traffic."

While the younger generation is losing interest in blogging, approaching people middle-aged and older sticking with it. Between 34-a-45-year-olds who use the Internet, the percentage that blog increased to six points, 16% in 2010 for two years before, Pew found. Blogging from 46-to-54-year-olds increased by five percentage points, 11 percent while blogging among 65-73-year-olds increased by two percentage points, 8 percent.

Russ Steele, 72, a retired air force officer and aerospace worker from Nevada City, California, says he spends up to three hours per day searching for interesting topics and write about them on his blog, NC Media Watch, covering local issues in Nevada County, northeast of Sacramento. All he wants is to have a voice in the community for its conservative point of view.

Although Facebook has signed up for this month, Mr. Steele said he did not use it much and said that he remained committed to blogging. "I would rather spend my time writing on a blog analysis than a whole bunch of short paragraphs, and then send them to people," he said. "I don't need to tell people that I'm going to the store".