Fifteen years ago, today, I signed up for WordPress.com, the cloud version of WordPress, the open-source blogging software. My first use of WordPress software goes beyond those 15 years — I was an early pre-alpha adopter of the software. Time certainly has flown. And the world of blogging (and writing) has gone through many changes — not to mention my own life. What was blogging (then) has morphed into Tweets, Facebook posts, Instagrams, and, more recently, Substacks. The coterie of chattering classes has become much bigger.

After twenty-odd years of blogging, what I really wish for is freedom from the tyranny of a headline that weighs down a blog post. A Facebook post lacks formality precisely for that reason, and that is why more people post on Facebook more often. A tweet, too, doesn’t need a punchy headline. And neither does Instagram!

From the archives: In 12 years of blogging, more things change, more they remain the same.