Blogging is dead. And anyone who believes it's alive has been tricked by the trendiest zombie infecting the interwebs.

It was 2003. I was a senior in high school with insatiable angst and needed to vent through my livejournal. Entries were mostly abodut AP Calculus tests and my impending graduation. I made friends and joined groups. I even sold a few art pieces. But between the college transition, my first blog's courtship ended with her desperate longing.

It wasn't until 2007 that blogging became the next new thing. Curious Tribe was born and I fell in love. Always a fan of the written word, I was head over feet in creative expression. Updating infrequently, I posted about dope songs and videos I liked on YouTube. And with new writers and a growing following, I became more infatuated.

More posts. More writers. More content. And we got it. More readers. More responsibility. More hours recycling posts from other sites.

Our passionate love had turned out to be nothing more than cold and lonely monotony. I was going through the motions of being creative, without actually writing new content. And that was the entire reason why I started the blog: to fulfill this innate desire to change the world with words and pictures.

Blogging died. And I killed her by wanting all the wrong things. I killed her by wanting to grow more than I wanted to create.

And now she's stalking me, back from the dead. Clawing at every new endeavor. Begging me to update her daily with articles I've read on other sites. And when I deny her, she runs to other blogs. Regurgitating the same content stolen from some unknown, unnamed source (probably the dying print industry).

So now I'm back to the basics. Learning to create again. One project a time. Setting clear goals, making real timelines, but primarily focusing on the process and not just the end result.

If you love her, let her go. And if she comes back to you, she probably just wants your brains.

It's okay to give inspiration, to tell people what made you smile while you were surfing from work. But it's better to take the time and create something that can inspire someone else.

- JUSTIN SHIELS -