What do we do now that everyone is going the video content route?
Believe me when I say I have tried to branch into video content creation. It looks like that is where the attention and money are right now. I even spend a ridiculous amount of time consuming videos when I am not sulking over my sunken blog traffic.
In the past, all I needed to do was publish a good blog post, optimize it for Google, share it on my then favourite platforms, Facebook and Twitter, and wait for them to do their magic.
Now, a lot has changed.
We have gone from the Google helpful content updates saga, to the rise of AI-generated content and a noticeable decline in the number of people willing to sit down and read a full article.
I cannot even pretend I am exempt from this shift. Most times, I would rather watch a short video than read a long post. When the information needed is important, I often skim until I find the answer.
I worry about this more than I would like to admit.
Right now, a painful realization is the fact that I, like many others, have started moving from being a creator to becoming a consumer. I spend more time watching other people create than working on the ideas sitting in my drafts.
Still, I do not believe the answer is for every writer to drop everything, buy a microphone and become a video creator.
We cannot all be video content creators. More importantly, not all of us want to be.
So, where does that leave those of us who still want to write?
Do we go dual, force ourselves in front of the camera or just keep doing what we actually love?
It feels like video is where everything is happening
At the moment, almost every platform appears to be pushing video.
Instagram, which many people originally used to share photos, is now filled with Reels. Facebook has become another endless video feed. YouTube has Shorts, and even platforms that were once centred around written conversations now encourage creators to post videos.
You open one app and see someone claiming they made thousands of dollars from a faceless YouTube channel. You open another and find someone encouraging you to start posting three short videos every day.
Then you log into YouTube, see a video published less than a day ago with thousands of views and wonder what you are doing writing another blog post.
Writing a post can take hours or days, even with AI assistance. You research, organise your thoughts, edit the draft, create images, optimise it and finally publish it.
After all that work, the post may barely receive traffic, even with all the Pinterest pins and social media posts you created to promote it..
Meanwhile, someone can upload a 20-second video and get thousands of views before the end of the day.
The funny thing is that video creation might look like the new shiny object, but plenty of video creators are struggling too. They keep uploading videos only friends and family get to see.
We just do not notice them because the algorithms keep showing us the successful ones. The ones doing well enough to make us envious.
Still, the pressure is there.
I have tried to become a video creator
Video content creation is not easy.
Now, imagine combining it with everything you already do as a blogger.
I have downloaded editing apps, watched tutorials, planned videos, tried to repurpose blog posts and imagined myself finally becoming consistent.
Sometimes, I get as far as setting everything up. Other times, the motivation behind the idea dies before I record or publish anything.
Video creation sounds simple until you try it yourself.
You need to decide what to say, how to say it and how to hold someone’s attention long enough for them to care. Then there is the lighting, audio, background, editing, captions and the discomfort of watching yourself speak.
Even faceless videos require work, possibly more than showing your face. You still need visuals, voice-overs or text, music, transitions and enough editing skills to make everything come together.
For someone who already overthinks written content, adding all these extra steps to an already daunting process feels like self-inflicted pain.
I do not simply decide to create one video. I start thinking about equipment, editing software, intro animations, posting schedules and the channel success.
Maybe writing is not the real problem
People still read.
They read captions, newsletters, Reddit discussions, product reviews, online arguments, guides, comments and search results. They read subtitles while watching videos. They read long posts when the topic matters enough to them.
The way we read may have changed, but written content has not suddenly become useless.
I still prefer written instructions when I am following a tutorial. I want something I can return to without rewinding a video over and over again.
When I am comparing products or tools, I want to scan the important points and open different tabs. When I need a code snippet, list, template or detailed explanation, I want it written somewhere.
People may not read every word of a blog post, but that does not mean the post failed. Most people do not watch every second of a video either. They skip introductions, increase the playback speed and drag the progress bar until they find what they need.
The problem may not be that nobody reads anymore.
Perhaps the bigger problem is that many bloggers, myself included, relied too heavily on Google and kept writing as though nothing had changed.
For years, the process was straightforward: publish a useful article, optimize it for search and wait for people to find it.
That does not work as reliably as it once did.
Searchers can now get condensed answers without opening a website. Many also go directly to AI tools when they need information.
It is difficult not to take falling traffic as proof that writing no longer matters, but those are not necessarily the same thing.
So, what happens now?
I do not think writing is dead, but I also do not think we can keep publishing the same way and expect the same results.
I do not want to abandon blogging, but I am also aware that good writing alone may not be enough to help people discover my work.
Maybe the answer is somewhere in the middle.
Maybe I’ll keep writing and slowly learn to share my ideas in other formats without pressuring myself to become a full-time video creator.
Maybe I will make one simple video from a blog post.
Maybe I really need to spend less time watching other people create and more time finishing what I have already started.
For now, that is the only answer I have.
