As I have been combing my journal and timeline page, one thing has stood out, why aren’t post formats more popular?
During the early 2010s, blog platforms like WordPress had themes and designs that used post formats like status, links, quotes, etc. The idea is that not all blog posts contain long-form text or images and can be used to create shorter more text-based posts. Those have now seemingly gone to the wayside.
I believe this is largely due to people using social media and other platforms more than blogging platforms. Personally, since 2021, I have been moving my content and posts off social media. I want to own my content and be more intentional and thoughtful with my posts.
I do see a larger movement of people using blogs as a way of sharing information and content. Social media allows you to post and see all of the information at one time in one place. This allowed for more passive content consumption. I do not want my content to just be something someone quickly scrolls past in their social media feed.
I want my content to be something someone wants to read and takes the time to fully engage and interact with it. I take the time to think and create the content in the hopes it can inspire and create conversation.
The return to blog posting has allowed me to create more thorough and thoughtful content that social media has lacked personally for me. I may not get the traction or as many views as I would on social media, but that is not the point.
Post types allow bloggers like myself to mimic the posting styles of social media. Post formats are possible if you know how to code on WordPress, but otherwise, it is just non-existent. Very few themes exist with this functionality and post format plugins are essentially non-existent.
I hope post formats gain traction again because it provides incredible value to be able to post a variety of content.
Joe Gullo