By Wafa Samara

AMMAN – Abdullah Ahmad used to keep in touch with people he knows through his blog, but now, he says, he has moved on to newer, shorter forms of online communication.

“I have noticed myself blogging less frequently after establishing a presence on Twitter,” said the 19-year-old Ahmad, referring to the “micro-blogging” service launched in 2006 that limits posts to 140 characters.

Ahmad is not alone among Jordanians in shifting his digital attention away from blogging. As world media experts argue over the uncertain fate of blogging around the world, social media personalities in Jordan believe that here, at least, it is dying out.

A form of online diary through which people can publish their thoughts on any topic, blogging has over the past few years established a wide presence among Jordanians from various segments of society.

“From 2005 until the end of 2008, the number of Jordanian blogs increased significantly to around 10,000,” said Mohammad Omar, chief editor of Albawaba.com portal, noting however that only about 1,000 of these blogs are active.

According to Omar, who started blogging two years ago, that rate is no longer on the rise, a change he attributed to the appearance of other tools on the Internet.

“As of 2009, blogging has started to fade as people turn to the easier aspects of social networks like Facebook and MySpace,” he said.

Blogging reached its peak in Jordan in 2006 and 2007, according to a source from the Internet service company Maktoob.com.

The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, added that the company hosted 8,500 blogs during that period.

"By the end of 2008 there had been a marked shift from blogging to micro-blogging among people aged 11 to 24," he said. "They migrate to tools like Facebook and Twitter where short format communication is easier."

According to official statistics, the number of blogs in the world is estimated at 70 million, 490,000 of which are in Arabic. On the other hand, there are currently 500 million users on YouTube and 183 million on Facebook.

Experts attributed the rapid rise of blogging in Jordan in the past three years mainly to the increasing number of platforms, like wordpress.com, that offer people opportunities to express themselves freely and without restrictions, as well as the notable increase in Internet access among Jordanians.

Internet access in the Kingdom has doubled from 18.2 per cent in 2008 to 36 per cent in 2009 according to a 2009 IREX Jordan Media Strengthening Programme survey.

However, Bassam Antary, a senior editor at Albawaba and instructor on electronic media at Yarmouk University, believes that the main reason for Jordanians’ rush towards blogging was the people’s need to “vent social and political repression”.

"Blogs are spaces for people who don’t have a chance to make their voices heard, like journalists whose articles are blocked from publication," he said.

"When you compare blogging in Jordan to blogging in other Arab countries, you see that we came late," Omar said. "We can feel the absence of political voice in Jordanian blogs because of the weakness of political parties."

“In Egypt for instance, blogs made change when they brought the issue of torture in prisons to light," he noted. "We also have our social and political issues that need to be tackled."

However, he added: "As a blogger, I receive few comments when I discuss serious issues like social conflict or honour crimes."

Rana Sweis, who started blogging in 2008, believes that blogging in Jordan is still confined to a limited segment of society.

"We used to hear the voices of the elite of Jordan, but we are also waiting for more personal voices from people," the 29-year-old journalist added.

“In such a dynamic environment, everything is possible,” Sweis said, pointing out that blogging only emerged a few years ago. “New models will emerge as technology changes and we will see other tools splashing around out there soon.”

Blogging, she said, may meet the same fate as personal digital assistants, which a decade ago were the preserve of those who relied on electronic address books and calendars. “Now, they are gone, but they are also all around as features of every mobile phone,” she added.

Amongst the rapid changes in Internet technology and the rise and fall of online fads, experts may long wonder where blogging, social networking and other trends will lead.

In the meantime, for young web users like Abdullah Ahmad, the shift from “traditional” blogs to Twitter and Facebook is likely only the beginning of a long journey through the constantly shifting world of online communications.