The 2022 Blogging Review

Having already published my standard yearly reviews (a personal review and the State of the Apps), I wanted to try something new this year. This 2022 Blogging Review highlights the most popular articles and what went into the writing of this site’s content.

The Numbers Behind The 2022 Blogging Review

In 2022 I published 33 articles (including this one), down from 45 in 2021 and 50 in 2020. The breaks I took in January and from August to October were the main reason for this drop, of course.

Readers are still mostly desktop-based (52%). Mobile readers are overwhelmingly on iPhone (59%). There’s an even gender split: 51% to 49% (Google doesn’t offer any more detailed figures on gender). As for journeys completed around the sun, the largest slice of readers were 25–34 years (25%), then 18–24 (24%), 35–44 (19%), 45–54 (15%), 55 to 64 (9%) and over 65 (6%).

Most Popular Articles of 2023

Looking at the statistics, five articles stood out as attracting significantly more readers this year.

De Tocqueville And The Habits Of The Heart – I found myself re-reading Alexis De Tocqueville’s magisterial Democracy in America almost by accident. But it proved to be a very happy accident indeed as I found a number of really useful ideas, such as the concept of habits of the heart, which are practices that not only help us individually, but also make us better able to contribute to society.

The Future Of Twitter – written back in April, when the story of Elon Musk buying Twitter grew serious, this long piece found me trying to cover the story and piece together some history of the platform and how to arrived at what it is today. One of the most satisfyingly journalistic pieces I’ve published on this site.

Is Personal Branding Just Bullshit? – Although not the rantiest rant of 2022 (that award goes to my post-Oscars tirade, The Slap), this piece did find me particularly ticked off at the way in which personal branding is misrepresented. All of us, especially those who work for money, have some sort of personal brand, whether or not we choose to think of it that way.

How To Read More Books – in recent years a startling number of people have expressed frustration at being unable to focus on reading books. Here I gave some practical ideas on how to fill your life with more reading.

Why You Should WOOP – would you adopt a habit if it was shown scientifically to strengthen your state of mind and improve your chances of being happy? Then why not try WOOP?

The Rest Of 2022’s Articles

In the first half (approximately) of 2022 I wrote a monthly summary of my reading. You can see what I read in January, February, March, April, May, June, and July. I’m going to post a mega-article in January 2023, listing all my reading during the second half.

Grief, and relocating halfway around the world, dominated 2022 for me. It took many drafts to get my Leaving London article right, since there were so many experiences to compress into it. A few sleepless nights went into revising The Time Machine, which was about the way grief challenges the way we remember past experiences.

How to experience more creativity in our lives has been a theme since the early days of this blog. I believe the more we tap into our creativity, the better we are able to be true to ourselves and be our best selves in the world.

Mission Critical is an example of this kind of thinking, while Sympathetic Magic was a case study in pushing creativity to the limit. Better Every Day highlighted how creative thinking can help us strengthen our mindset. Finally, Living in the Long Moment showed how creatively tweaking our sense of history can help us build a more resilient sense of self and live more openly and generously.

I’ve always been fascinated by the way technology shapes our culture, and in recent years I’ve started to wonder how we can heal our relationship with technology. How To Think About Technology explored this directly.

A Post-Twitter World was one of several articles this year reflecting on the increasingly untenable nature of being very online. I often reflecting on the state of blogging, too, such as in How This Blog Has Changed and Share Cropping in the SEO Wasteland. Creation Matters More Than Curation explored the way in which ideas about online content have shifted and evolved in the past decade.

My Favourite Article of 2022

My personal favorite from 2022 was Daddy’s Home by St Vincent. I don’t write many reviews, and seldom do those reviews talk about music. This is odd because music is so important to my life.

I also don’t write enough about how I change my mind, which I do often, sometimes spectacularly.

St Vincent is my favourite contemporary musician. But I was disappointed in her latest album. Then I realised I was wrong. And I am glad I wrote the reasons why.