I've been having an ongoing argument about blogs with a number of people in my life. For the most part, I've been on the "anti-blog" side. But in a recent email, I defended them. For the sake of posterity, here was my defense (edited slightly to make sense out of it's original context):
...Blogs are mostly for friends anyway, even if they are viewable by the masses. Maybe someone from the masses stumbles onto a blog they like. Maybe people link to their favorite blogs on their blog, making interconnected rings and webs. If so, great. If not, well, you've always got your friends.
And let's be honest: Blogs are 90% crap. But so is everything else. Sure Vogue goes through a rigorous editorial process, but that doesn't make it not suck. Same with any given reality TV show. Or crappy movie.
Now, that said, blogs can exhibit a special kind of sucking. They can not only be void of interesting content, but they can also be written and punctuated by near illiterates. And their facts can be way off. And no one carries any more weight than anyone else in the "blogoshere." In theory, anyway. I mean, it's all words on a screen, right?
But again, it's not. Different people, and different organizations carry more weight. Obviously, news from Slate's Kausfiles carries more weight than news from some guy who calls himself eatbushin08.
Entertainment blogs work the same way. I read Mike Doughty's blog because he's the former lead singer of Soul Coughing, one of my favorite bands. I read my friend Mike's blog because he's a friend of mine, and in the same journalism program as I am (same goes for Courtney and Lark, since I'm plugging people).
There's plenty of crap out there, and I can choose not to read it. In fact, think of all the things you and I are not reading right now. It's astounding!
Anyway, blogs are out there. They're cheap fast and easy. You get what you pay for. Just add water. (Insert other cliches here). Just understand what you're getting, and where it came from.
(***Yes, in the tradition of poor blogging grammar, I just ended my sentence—neé, my entire entry—with a preposition). Take that Strunk and/or White.)
5 comments:
Thanks both. TOMCP, your post reminded me that I need to enable anonymous user comments, so you don't have to sign up to write in. Ergo, my adoring public (both of them, apparently) can comment at their leisure.
I like the "other" category. It makes me feel special
Let's see if it works.
I read a blog once.
It was OK.
I didn't mean to be critical of your blog by my prior post "I read a blog once. It was OK." As I know you are an avid Onion reader it was meant to be a reference to Jim's Journal. Is it possible that I don't have any original thoughts but just the ability to recite things I've heard or read before? (Like the Jim's Journal thing). I've noticed that if Simpson's quotes were eliminated from my dialogue I might not have much left to say. Thank God everyone I talk to has seen every episode.
Well, time to sleep. "Yeah, that's where I'm a Viking."
Sadly Ryan, yes, I did catch exactly where that reference came from. Because I also went to college, and it was ok.
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