Why We Blog
Blogging is an inherently egotistical endeavor.
While it is true that this singular reality comes in a spectrum of shades and degrees, its validity has never been more apparent than in today's digital culture. Certainly, since its "activist awakening" following the political fall of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in late 2001 and its widespread acceptance by popular culture often attributed to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections, the weblog has largely become a media for self-glorifying boilerplate (Fig. 1)(Fig. 2) (Fig. 3). A recent study of web log content conducted by Digital Marketing Services, Inc. for AOL Time-Warner found that over half of all published blogs contained journal-like personal accounts created for the purposes of self-therapy. In stark contrast, only "....16 percent of bloggers do so to pursue journalistic aims, 12 percent blog to break news or advance news and gossip, and eight percent blog to 'expose political information.'" Without discrediting these 'personal' blogs in sweeping puritanical condemnation - for some certainly demonstrate striking application of both prose and wit - it is my hope that this page will be of an altogether different sort.
For the web log holds so much more potential than is utilized by the vast majority of 'personal' bloggers. Ab ovo, the concept of a blog had a simplistic brilliance to it that was as refreshing as it was inspirational. Years of homogeneous stimuli manufactured by overblown media conglomerates had corroded not only the breadth and color of our imaginations, but the very integrity of factual truth. The blog promised a much-needed tonic through a re-empowerment of the individual; the pathways were opened wide to the free exchange of ideas - as brazen as they were diverse - in a scenario that bore striking resemblance to those definitive moments of history in which the suffocating monolith of ignorance and superstition was deconstructed through the ebb and flow of manumitted thought: the grove of Academus in 5th century B.C.E. Athens, Cosimo de' Medici's Accademia in 15th century C.E. Florence or even (what sort!) the Merry Pranksters in their journeys on Further during the 1960's. The noble efforts of innovative blogs further this indispensable historical tradition.
With all of this in mind, our blog strikes a balance between these dichotomies. Its premise - two dear friends in the act of maintaining old, and often absurd, ligatures - is inherently insular, but I can assure you that both its focus and approach are universal. This is a forum in which an exploration of the personal is undertaken through a critical examination of the environments, cultures and ideas of the external world. In any event, I do hope you enjoy...
And now, onto the bookish melee!
While it is true that this singular reality comes in a spectrum of shades and degrees, its validity has never been more apparent than in today's digital culture. Certainly, since its "activist awakening" following the political fall of former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott in late 2001 and its widespread acceptance by popular culture often attributed to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections, the weblog has largely become a media for self-glorifying boilerplate (Fig. 1)(Fig. 2) (Fig. 3). A recent study of web log content conducted by Digital Marketing Services, Inc. for AOL Time-Warner found that over half of all published blogs contained journal-like personal accounts created for the purposes of self-therapy. In stark contrast, only "....16 percent of bloggers do so to pursue journalistic aims, 12 percent blog to break news or advance news and gossip, and eight percent blog to 'expose political information.'" Without discrediting these 'personal' blogs in sweeping puritanical condemnation - for some certainly demonstrate striking application of both prose and wit - it is my hope that this page will be of an altogether different sort.
For the web log holds so much more potential than is utilized by the vast majority of 'personal' bloggers. Ab ovo, the concept of a blog had a simplistic brilliance to it that was as refreshing as it was inspirational. Years of homogeneous stimuli manufactured by overblown media conglomerates had corroded not only the breadth and color of our imaginations, but the very integrity of factual truth. The blog promised a much-needed tonic through a re-empowerment of the individual; the pathways were opened wide to the free exchange of ideas - as brazen as they were diverse - in a scenario that bore striking resemblance to those definitive moments of history in which the suffocating monolith of ignorance and superstition was deconstructed through the ebb and flow of manumitted thought: the grove of Academus in 5th century B.C.E. Athens, Cosimo de' Medici's Accademia in 15th century C.E. Florence or even (what sort!) the Merry Pranksters in their journeys on Further during the 1960's. The noble efforts of innovative blogs further this indispensable historical tradition.
With all of this in mind, our blog strikes a balance between these dichotomies. Its premise - two dear friends in the act of maintaining old, and often absurd, ligatures - is inherently insular, but I can assure you that both its focus and approach are universal. This is a forum in which an exploration of the personal is undertaken through a critical examination of the environments, cultures and ideas of the external world. In any event, I do hope you enjoy...
And now, onto the bookish melee!
posted by Ned at 9:39 PM
3 Comments:
More than a month without another blog? You guys should really pick up the pace a bit! Did you read about the guy in Rhode Island who decorated for Christmas with giant posters of Paris Hilton and her little dog? It doesn't really seem to embrace the true holiday spirit. You could also review the Jones Soda Holiday Pack. I've tried it myself, and it's totally worth a blog. Stop thinking - start writing! Both of you! Otherwise no one is going to bother reading your blog any more.
Yes, I agree with anonymous. As a significant other of one of these bloggers, it seems odd that they just will not write. I think it should together be our mission to light a fire under their respective asses. I don't know who you are, but I like your spirit. Oh yeah, and I tried that Holiday Pack too. It was bottled throw-up.
Hmm... the significant other? That is so politicially correct. What does it mean to be an "other" in your opinion?
In these days characterized by generalism we have decidedly complicated even the most elementary descriptions. Mothers and fathers are now "guardians"; husbands and wives are "partners". Sometimes individuals are termed "diverse" and weddings, holidays, and birthdays are all "celebrations". Yes, these terms offer no judgement, but they are at best fluffy. They skirt around the real issue, which is equality. Rather than labeling everything with the most bland and general word available, why don't we just describe things the way they exist? We won't have true equality until "partners" no longer exist -- until anyone, man or woman, can introduce a husband. If I were to advise certain political parties I would suggest they throw out generalism and stop playing a war of semantics with the population at large.
When you call yourself an "other" your role is diminished and loses meaning. It also contributes to a distrubing societal trend. Have you noticed that young people over use general pronouns? Often young people say sentences that use "it" "that" and "there" without any proper nouns or true subjests. Listening to conversations filled with pronouns infuriates me. Why are children talking with such vague descriptions of actual, physical items? Have we all taken one too many lessons from the popular criminal trials of our era?
Vagueness will never triumph. It is specificity that led to progress in science and technology, and it is specificity that defines the great literary genres. Right now America is hindered by generalism. My suggestion: let's just be honest, call it like it is, and move forward, as individuals and as a society.
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