Posts
“I've always viewed those that keep solid, regularly updated blogs with an equal mixture of admiration and disdain.” (Alex Nelder, AWordOnFailure)
Ages ago, back when Alex and I thought blogging would be “cool” and “fun”, Alex wrote the first post for our blog. It was a kind of defense of blogging; an explanation of why blogs are worthwhile. While I’m typically not a critical person, I must say that that post of his left me puzzled. And, after thinking about it for a while, forgetting it, remembering it, thinking about it some more, and finally having a chance to write out my thoughts, I’ve decided to try and explain why blogs are bad. I think blogging to stupid; there are a number of problems with it.
Probably the most pressing problem with blogging is the threat to legitimate authorship and journalism. A blog is kinda like a mic; it’s a way to get your ideas out there; to be heard. Every time you write a post, blogspot screams “Congratulations! Your post has been successfully published!” While this isn't "real" publication, your views are still out there for all to see in a real way. In fact, things on the internet are vastly more accessible than traditional/legitimate forms of publication. This isn't so much a problem for Alex or I, since our blog doesn't get the same number of comments as The itty bitty kitty committee blog, but it's a danger for the public and the marketplace of ideas when stupid people, bigots, neophytes, and the like decide to blog. Some ideas don’t deserve to stand on the soapbox that is the internet. But bad blogs are out there, acting as a way for bad ideas and opinions to spread like an STI through a college dorm. People get onto their blog and spout ideas that are dumb or just plain wrong; the absence of checks and balances allows them to act as an authority on topics they aren't. Blogs promote the mantra that everyone has an opinion and is entitled to it – which is wrong; only experts and smart people are entitled to their opinions. When you boil it down, blogs are the FOX News of the internet: a way for "information" to get transmitted, when it really shouldn't.
And there's another, more personal, danger that comes with blogging: being misinterpreted. Again, because what you say is "published" on the omni-present interweb it's accessible to (virtually) everyone. And because we all aren’t as clear writers as Alex, if you're unclear in what you say people might take it the wrong way. Here, then, people mistake your views for something that they're not. Another way you can be misinterpreted is why you blog. Your motivation can be, a lot of the time, unclear. I guess this is a risk you take when you blog, but it's never that much fun to reap the consequences of being attributed views that you don't have. Comments are nice, I suppose, because they enable a discussion through which you can get at your underlying considerations… but comments aren’t mandatory; presumptive reactions are much easier.
More superficially, blogging isn't trendy anymore. It's like... something that's used to be new and sheik but now something "serious" people leave to 14 year olds and net-obsessed geeks. Blogging has gone from a new way to communicate to just another away to spew verbal puke. Not that I'm a slave to trends, but blogging now lacks the appeal that once made it popular. There are so many blogs out there that's someone worthwhile isn't really capable of finding the blog they'd be best reading. Soo many blogs are just online diaries… ours is plainly not; but this remains an inescapable stigma. More than anything else, blogs now seems to be mainly a way to communicate with friends and random from the net. Don’t get me wrong, that's okay. But if that's all I'm gonna get outta it, I might as well just talk to friends and strangers on the street than put in the effort of blogging.
So, when people ask me "why do you blog?" (or, rather, what I'd imagine they'd ask if they cared when they I mention that I blog), my answer is: “I dunno; maybe I shouldn't”. Does that mean that my continuance to blog makes me some kind of hypocrite or whatever? I don’t think so, instead I’d say it means that my relationship with blogs in akin to David Suzuki’s with TV: fighting to convince others of the legitimacy of my views via the medium I hate. I could say more, but I think that’s enough for now. This is just my spur-of-the-moment thoughts on the subject. I could be wrong. After all, what do I know.
