Ch-ch-changes!

I came across this blog hop while I was, well, blog hopping and liked the idea so I think I'm going to try joining in for a while and see how it goes.  It was started by Brenda Youngerman with the hope of inspiring some creativity for herself and other bloggers.  Each week she gives a prompt, participants write about it, or post a picture about it, or write a poem, or whatever means they choose to express themselves.  Then everyone links up back on Brenda's blog.  It's that easy.  If you want to give it a whirl or check out the other participants just click on the links to see Brenda's full post.
This Week's Prompt: The Blogging World
Ch-ch-changes!
Oh, how the blogging world has changed since I created my first blog back in 2001.  Back in those prehistoric days we painted our blogs on the cave walls with ash.  Okay, not really, but it was terribly primitive by comparison.  Blogs were one page, of a very basic design, and there were no helpful widgets to talk about.  Community didn't exist as we know it today, either.  Finding other blogs to read and building up a circle of friends took some effort.
If anyone had told me back then how huge blogging would become, I wouldn't have believed them.  It was a fun little hobby, but it really didn't seem to be much more than online journaling.  And the idea that people could actually make money at it?  Pfffft!  It's a good thing there are people out there with more vision and computer knowledge than me.
The communities I've created and the friends I've made through my many blog incarnations would have amazed me back in those days, too.  Each blog has had it's own feel and community, though, some friends have carried over.  I count some of my blog friends among my best friends...something people who don't blog don't understand.  I have friends from all over the United States and some other parts of the world.  I've gained a few good friends over the years by being introduced via a mutual blog friend (friends, I might add, that are still friends even though the original friend is no longer part of the circle).  I've met a few blog friends in person and these days the community we create isn't locked to the pages of the blog.  We connect on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Google+, and all the rest of the social networks.
Is it better than it was?  Yes!!  Everything about blogging is easier and more user friendly than it was.  However, all the "simplification" that's made it so easy to do amazing things has also opened up a legal can of worms that we now have to have at least a basic understanding of.  It's still worth the effort, if you ask me.
The only thing that hasn't changed in the last 11 years?  People who don't blog STILL don't get it.  They probably never will...or they'd already be doing it.