The Blogging landscape is drastically different now compared to 5 years ago. And is it all for the better?

I used to blog in 2020 back when my side project was just a small technical blog. Things were better in the way it was easier to attract curious audience once you get the ball rolling by sharing it in communities like Facebook groups (those are zombie towns now), reddit etc. But today it feels very different.

I rebooted my own blog with a better design and a fresher look and new, interactive articles rather than text heavy ones. I shared it in communities like I used to in 2020. But it feels like everyone is sceptical about why people still write blogs when you have AI answering everything.

Is that a good thing? I feel not. I use AI everyday as a part of my job to ask questions and get know things but it does not feel like the answer that's been given is as good as something said by a stranger in a community or even in the comment section of a blog. Maybe that's just me. The point is, the writer of a blog gets the motivation to write more only if he feels someone would want to even visit it out of curiosity (be it a handful of visitors).

When Google's AI search is gonna hand someone the answer from your blog and just mark you as the source, it does feel like hijacking what blogs deserve. I don't write for monetary goals. Just for the fun of it. But it feels like things right now sucks the fun out of blogging. Am I thinking about this in an overly pessimistic way? Is there even a possibility of creating a niche community if someone is just starting in 2026?

Would love to hear from people having a different view!