“No one reads blog posts anymore” is something I heard a few weeks ago.  Perhaps no one reads anything longer than a twitter feed anymore. I am told Instragram is where it’s at.  #donotmakemeread. Pictures of cats, babies and beautiful cupcakes?  That’s all we want?  We communicate by hashtags now.

We are all ADHD?  Am I being an old fogey in decrying the loss of actual writing and reading?  Is this really true?

Then why are there so many book clubs?

Why are there still local bookstores?  Amazon has even opened brick and mortar book stores.  Someone must be reading. The New York Times, Washington Post and New Yorker magazine are seeing an upsurge in subscriptions. Longform journalism is not dead.

I must admit I have a collection of New Yorker’s on my coffee table. They are great to take on vacation. You do not have to worry if your plane or hotel has wifi. You can leave them behind for others to read.  Yes, you can subscribe to the digital edition but somehow that seems to defeat the whole idea.  And, I can read them in the bubble bath.

My friend, the book coach, fills a room with would be writers. Someone is writing all those books and someone is reading those books.

But, but, blog posts? I still read them but am I the only one? Do you read blog posts? Maybe this is the province of the over fifty?

I committed to writing a blog post every Sunday.  And guess what? I write whether anyone is reading them or not. Well, that’s not really true.  I do care and I love when I get feedback. It is great when a friend tells me that she enjoys my posts but it is even more thrilling when perfect strangers find my posts and comment.

Perhaps if these posts are the province of the over fifty it is our responsibility.  It is our responsibility to tell our stories. I am finding that millennials really do want to learn from our history. Not that we are romanticizing the past. The good old days were not better.  Not if you were a woman or a person of color or a person with physical disabilities.

This time of year we see the awarding of Pulitzer Prizes. It is heartening to see how young some of the winners are. Yes, millennials are writing and presumably reading.

I am hopeful.