Grown up too quickly?

Now that blogging has entered the mainstream has it lost its innocence so to speak?

That seems to be the gist behind this article at the Economist which refers to the decision of Jason Calacanis who this summer announced his “retirement from blogging.

The reason?

Blogging is simply too big, too impersonal, and lacks the intimacy that drew me to it,” he offered by way of explanation. It was, he said, “the pressure” of staying on the A-list—ie, of keeping his blog so big and impersonal—that got him. Only a few years ago, so few people blogged that being a blogosphere celebrity required little more than showing up. Now it takes hard work. And vitriol. “Today the blogosphere is so charged, so polarised, and so filled with haters hating that it’s simply not worth it,”

But this tale has a prophecy

Blogging has entered the mainstream, which—as with every new medium in history—looks to its pioneers suspiciously like death.

and have been taken over by

conventional media organisations. Nearly every newspaper, radio and television channel now runs blogs and updates them faster than any individual blogger ever could.

and have they sold out

companies far outside the media industry have embraced blogging as just another business tool. They are using blogs both to get corporate messages to the public and as an internal medium for staff