Some days I wonder, when exactly did the state of blogging change from being just a sleepy geek hobby where normal people would go "huh?" to the crazy madhouse that if you squint almost looks like the things we get from real life itself. When did that happen?

In all the long months in which I have been blogging, I don't think I can remember when exactly did all the things such as fame, popularity, freedom of speech, ways to blog, problogging, and blog wars come in. To all those people that started blogging in these past few months, it probably is a complete norm for all of you to have these things…but during my time (wow I can actually say that now), things like that were unheard off. The closest response you can get from the blogosphere during those years was this.

"Whoa…you got a blog too? Can I link you?"

Now, it seems that the majority of people are getting into blogging for reasons that completely differ from my generation of bloggers. Yes…my generation of bloggers. It seems that everytime people bring up subjects like this, there will always be those batches of people who will always say why are they classifications when we should all be together. I don't expect the new generation of bloggers to understand and fair enough, it's either you get it or you don't, but I'll get back to my point.

I am from the 2nd generation of blogging. We are the bloggers that started blogging because we had something to say, because there are things in our head that we just had to express and spill to the world, because we are and will forever be individuals in our blogs blogging for no one and nothing but our own personal release. We were the birth of the personal blogs. The ones that defined what our part of the blogosphere is today. But somewhere along the line, the 3rd generation of blogging came about.

They are the commercialised mass of bloggers. Bloggers that started because their friends have it. Bloggers that started because they want to be known. Bloggers that blog because there is an audience there and they want it or they need it. Blogger that define their existence in the blogosphere through other bloggers. These are the 3rd generation bloggers…and it's quickly overrunning the part of the blogosphere I have grown to love.

I suppose there is nothing I can do about it. Blogging like life means that it is always subjected to change. A lot of us 2nd gen peeps may not like it, but what can we do. That's the way it is and we just have to live with it. Sometimes its sad to see some people stop blogging because the state of blogging has become so wildly different that it might actually be easier to quit altogether, but to all of us 2nd genners who have thought of that…let tell you something. That's not you thinking.

Yes the blogosphere that we know is different, but how does that make us any different? Yes over the years we have probably evolved to be better bloggers…or even take it as far as to change the way we write, but how does that make us any different. The need to quit because the blogosphere has become a field of popularity contests and politically correct blog wars…that's because we've been influenced by the 3rd generation. That's the 3rd generation's way of telling you how important your blog is to you…when it isn't the reason why you have kept blogging for all these years.

Remember those times when you blogged? The times when places like PPS was just a place where we can read other people's blog instead of using half baked search engines to find them. Where it didn't really matter who read our blogs but that we said whatever was on my mind anyway no matter how important it is. Where blogging was just…civillized and orderly because even if you do not like what someone else said…you had the sense to just close it and move on with your life…with your blog. Do you remember those times?

Those were our times. Those were the times we need to remember. Those were the times we need to get back. It doesn't matter whether times have changed and we have become responsible for maintaining the dignity of blogging for the younger generation of bloggers. It matters that we keep blogging because we will be who always were as bloggers. When in doubt…when you have the slightest piece of doubt of why you keep going on and on when all that it's giving you is a migraine…is to go back to those reasons why we loved blogging before everything changed.

Where did our part of our blogosphere go? I don't know. When did our part of our blogosphere start to fade away? I don't know either. What I do know is what we are and what we still are. It doesn't matter whether they call us elite or veteran bloggers. It doesn't matter whether we changed out writing styles a hundred times because we're not in the mood to be blogging that way. All of that doesn't matter.

What matters is that we will always be the bloggers we are because we choose to be the individuals we blogged about. That will never change. So don't you forget it.