A Repsonse to a Quote about Blogs

'Bloggers are navel-gazers, and they're about as interesting as friends who make you look at their scrap books. There's an overfascination here with self-expression, with opinion. This is opinion without expertise, without resources, without reporting' (Schachtman, 2002)

Weblog is a term that has come to encompass a wide range and variety of frequently updated web pages that contain information about personal life, culture, news, health and other things. They are maintained by a diverse group of people: teenagers, college students, critics, journalists, aspiring writers, and everyone in between. Sites, like blogger.com, have made making and maintaining a blog easy for pretty much anyone to do. There is no html involved. One simply needs to sign up, login, type in a box and hit enter—and you’ve made an entry.

Because of this ease, anyone, and I mean anyone, really can put up a blog. Like anything else, people who are “boring”, who are narcissistic, and who plain just can’t write, are going to have to blogs there for the whole world to read. You’re going to have people who write very insightful, critical entries about a new movie. You’ll have other people complaining about the fact that their cat coughed up a hairball on the bed.

And that’s okay! People obviously must get a thrill from reading them. That’s why people get become addicted, spending hours going through pages of bloggers’ lives. They must be gratifying that desire, which most of us have had at one time or another, to read another person’s inner thoughts.

Of course, I think people would benefit much more from picking up a newspaper or going to a news site and reading about what’s going on in the world. I think a lot of people spend entirely too much time in these self-absorbed worlds that have been created on the Internet. Read a book. Ride a bike. Actually get to know your neighbor.

But the fact of the matter is that not every blog has the same purpose. Not every blog is supposed to be literary achievement, broadening and deepening the understanding of its readership in important and provoking topics or subjects. For many, it is simply a way to communicate. For some it is a way to express themselves, somewhat anonymously (but this is not always the case, and many bloggers know that their friends read their blogs), to a broader audience. This is a way in which many people deal with their “demons,” whether it be a destructive relationship or boredom.

However, there are “intelligent” blogs out there that deal with stuff that’s written about in published magazines and newspapers. You can find blogs containing articles of criticism, essays, philosophy, current events, culture, etc., etc. The advantage of course is that no longer are these topics simply the domain of (an arguably elite group) published writers or journalists. All sorts of people can write about this stuff. And some are quite talented, and write very excellent, thought-provoking articles.

And quite frankly—what makes the opinion of these published few so essential and valuable anyway? I like reading criticism myself, especially music criticism, and I disagree with these guys (and girls) more than half the time. (Honestly, most music critics don’t know a thing about music.) In many ways, true enthusiasts are no different than the “professionals” (unless of course you’re comparing someone who the only medicine they’ve learned has come from watching ER and an actual physician).

And really… If I’m going to read the news, I’ll grab a copy of The Sun or check out cnn.com. That’s where resources, trust, and reporting count. And then if I want I can make an entry on what I think about what’s going on, or read other blogs, or respond to what other people have said in their blogs. People talk about what’s happening in the world in real life all the time.

I admit that I’ll check out a couple of my friends’ blogs from time to time. And I do enjoy some of the more insightful blogs that are out there. But personally, as fascinating as the whole concept of the weblog is, I think reading other people’s online diaries is a waste of time. But then again, I find watching pointless soap operas and reading cheesy romance novels a waste of time, too.

First Post

This is just a first post to try things out.