A couple of times in the last week, I've been hearing people say to me that they don't read blogs.
I find it now prescient to respond to such claims, as I find them borderline preposterous.
(Apologies to those to whom this is responding, but I might as well get these conversations out of the way, and I'm sorry if I come across as harsh or disrespectful, but you're probably never going to read them anyway).
The internet is, in essence, the ultimate meritocracy. The best websites are usually the most trafficked, in the sense of what they can give to the reader. Many of these "best" websites are blogs, and many are not. The point is, a website can merit readership and a following, whether it is a blog or not, that is a fact. It has become virtually impossible to define what a blog actually is. This, yes, is a blog. Free Darko, China Matters, Perez Hilton, all blogs. New York Times, Yahoo, Reuters, not blogs. All are popular, all provide quality information to the readers, all the time.
The only difference is really in the name, as long as we trust the meritocracy.
This is one of the many divides between the Kieth Olbermanns and Bill O'Reillys of the world (notorious, accomplished, respective blog lover/hater) - supposed enlightenment exists not in the opposite of blind dismissal, but rather the abscence of it. Therefore, world, I beg of you - our name, or our .blogspot tag, or our blogosphere peers don't necessarily make us any less credible than the New York Times (however difficult that may actually be). It's our content thats our "downfall". Pulitzer Prize Winning novelist and journalist H.G. Bissinger once claimed on live television that blogs "are the complete dumbing-down of our society", which was followed by the exclamation that "it [the blogosphere] really pisses the shit out of me".
I can only hope that I will win a pulitzer someday for "pissing the shit" out of somebody. Earlier in his interview, Bissinger forcibly asked a blogger if he had even heard of W.C. Heinz. When the blogger replied that he had, Bissinger's response was to break down into a fit of profanity and saliva. If it is indeed the vulgarity and triviality that defines blogs, than Bissinger has made himself a part of it, forever immortalized on youtube, and the Blogger, indeed a former Colleague of Heinz's, would have had to try alot harder to defend himself in that clip.
Yes, there are people on the internet who write about less than literary topics. For every blog about the British Revolution of the 1650's there are certainly ten about poop, tits, or the foot and a half of torso in between. Nobody, including me, is arguing that. But, how can that ever, ever mean that this blog, or any other, might not be a good read, a good communicator, even a good canvas. Reading is fun, writing is fun, and I'm thrilled to be able to do both in a space where people might actually care about what I have to say. Best, there are 20 of us who are enjoying it just like I am. Even if its about poop, someone might care about it. Don't blame the blogger simply for pursuing his interests.
It stands to reason that this here, or at least the in the style which its written, is the internet of the future. Gone are the days where people wait for evening or nighttime news, let alone read the newspaper in the morning. The internet wouldn't be absolutely destroying all other kinds of media if it didn't have the power to be updated fifteen times a day, without question. Web 2.0 has revolutionized communication, time-wasting, and even personal identity. Almost everybody I know has a facebook or a twitter, their own personal oft-updated website with pictures, personal information, and messages from friends. The future of communication is already here, and the future of information is rapidly, rapidly catching up.
Also, tonight myself, Skylight, and the visiting whirlwind are going to bily kun tonight, round 1030ish.
You know where it is
P.S. i'm looking into writing something about sports soon, i got a scoop i'm probably going to do something recreational about, if i get around to it. I've started research.
Stay Classy, DT.
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3 comments:
I'm surprised anyone would take the time to even be offended by DT's existence. Who reads this shit but those of us who post here? Are there actually other people out there?
Are we being watched?
I flipped through The Virtual Community by Howard Rheingold the other day. It's a quasi-autobiographical book about internet communities before the internet became a community--the first popular "message board", the WELL, and its growth and span of seven or eight years before its decline.
He writes of how close he grew to those from whom he was physically far away. He establishes what it means to belong to a virtual community--a sense of wonderment at what the web could offer, the connections and ability to learn so much so quickly.
He wrote it in '93, mind you.
That's all I think of DT as. I'm writing to my close friends--from whom I am physically far away. I agree with people who would generally disregard blogs in favour of books or journalism; if I want an opinion, I'll get a published one. But to criticize the bloggers for blogging innocently is a whole other thing.
(Apologies if I misunderstood your vague directions at the beginning, Bernice; it seemed as thought you were defending a position against a particular someone reading this, so I felt inclined to join your fight.)
it wasnt any one person in particular, but a string of people over a short period of time, all of whom, upon my asking them to check out my blog, responded with "yeah, i don't really do that. sorry".
What i was trying to argue is that blogs are becoming journalism. we must remember that nobody is forcing anyone to start a blog - they become popular on their own merit, and often that is because they indeed a viable news source or on subjective editorial par with journalism, or books. the definition of what even is a "blog" doesn't really exist anymore.
MF: we are watched, although not by very many people. Occasionally we'll even be visited by a blogginghead celebrity, like Bethlehem Shoals, and giggle incredulously for a week. I'd like to read that book.
B is right. Blogs are interesting and important because, at least in principle and much more so than other news/thought media, barriers to entry are extremely low. In a pondering/analysis blog like ours or Shoals' or China Matters, the author(s) aren't offering exclusive information acquired from contact networks or news wires; they take the same information as the rest of us and add value in the processing and retelling. What rises to the top is, again in principle, what is of the most interest to the greatest number. Those not offering cogent or demanded analysis are ignored.
I forget where I was going. Oh yes back to work.
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