It’s time for my annual look back over the state of the blog in 2025, including the most popular media and tech posts.
Blog post statistics below are taken from Matomo (a self-hosted WordPress analytics plugin) as of December 27, 2025. Again, I’m only looking at posts written this year.
The top 5 media posts for 2025
- Media companies that still support DEI (and alternatives to ones that don’t) (March)
- What are the 10 top-grossing media franchises? (July)
- Where to buy DRM-free digital comics (2025 edition) (July)
- The cost of going to the movies versus renting or streaming (April)
- Animation cable channels see major viewership drops in 2024 (January)
Again, politics and the Trump administration have cast a long and negative shadow over many things in 2025, and that includes media. Thus the #1 post, about media companies dialing back diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts to knee-bend to Trump and the other bigots in his administration. Since March, when I wrote the post, every media conglomerate has catered to Trump in some fashion. Even nonprofit public broadcaster PBS dialed back on DEI, only to see its funding cut anyway—proof that trying to appease a bully like Trump is a pointless effort.
At #2, I looked at the top grossing media franchises, most of which are the expected suspects (Mickey Mouse, “Star Wars,” etc.).
At #3, I looked at where to buy DRM-free digital comics, which should matter to everyone that isn’t attached to superhero comics. Especially since DC/Marvel will likely never release DRM-free books, being tied to DRM-obsessed corporations Warner Bros. and Disney.
For #4, going to the movies is an expensive experience, especially for families. Thus a reason why streaming’s become popular, as much as Hollywood directors and multiplex chains wish people would keep going to theaters. Despite streaming’s constant price hikes, Disney+ is still much cheaper than a family of four going to a theater to see “Zootopia 2.”
Finally, #5 shows the continued decline in cable TV viewership in 2024, something that likely won’t change when I write the 2025 edition of the post. Again, the only uses left for cable TV (or its live streaming equivalents) are sports, cable news, and a few live events.
The top 5 tech posts for 2025
- The top 10 US streaming services (2025 edition) (April)
- Tech companies that still support DEI (and alternatives to ones that don’t) (February)
- Recommended Google alternatives (2025 edition) (February)
- Alternatives to Facebook, Instagram, and Threads (January)
- 2024 US home video revenue: streaming makes up nearly all viewing; physical media sales fall below $1 billion (February)
At #1 is a look at the biggest streaming services. The “streaming wars” have pretty much been won by the standard classic stand-bys (Netflix, Disney+/Hulu, and Amazon Prime). Keeping with this is #5—streaming at this point is the de facto norm for home video, with physical media now a niche market.
Politics emerges again with #2. Like the media companies above, all of the major tech companies have bent the knee to Trump in some fashion, with their CEOs even appearing at his inauguration. Boycotting all of them completely is pretty much impossible; if nothing else, Amazon’s AWS is the server backbone for many online services. That said, one can still minimize usage of them, as noted in #3 (Google alternatives) and #4 (Meta alternatives).
2025 blog highlights
I once again shuttered my blog’s Facebook page in January. Given everything going on with Meta, as well as said pages being useless for anyone not a major celebrity or brand, I think the closure’s for good this time. I barely use Facebook as it is; I just occasionally check in on family and online friends who won’t use anything else.
In May, I switched the blog categories’ individual names back to “media” and “tech,” under the overall “Diverse Tech Geek” name. This is after trying to give them separate names and semi-separate identities for the past few years. The two categories are still semi-separate, however; those wanting to read posts about Linux might not want to see posts about cartoons (and vice-versa).
Finally, July marked the blog’s 15th anniversary!
Once again, thanks to everyone for reading and supporting my blog. I look forward to continuing blogging in 2026. Let’s hope the new year is a big improvement over 2025, despite how low that bar’s been placed.
Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
I’m curious about this Matomo. Do you know if it uses a bunch of processing power on the server?
I’m not sure how much processing power it uses. The plugin version seems to work OK for me in WordPress. There’s also a standalone installation version available.