as you may recall, i have pondered the values of blogging a few times within the past year.
it continues to be a ruminating question as there are baby blogs, cat and dog blogs, blogs about bubble gum, and a wash of personal rants and raves such as soyboy, here.
from my limited research, most of the press regarding the pinnacle influence of blogging came around the last presidential election: here (pdf), here, here (pdf), and here.
is it that the peak awareness and noticable impact of blogging hit in 04? do we now just take it for granted that the blogosphere is being watched and (more importantly) listened to by a great number of people? what influence does blogging really have on our culture? on our political process? on our mindset? on our quality of life?
11 comments:
I think that blogs are stubbornly here to stay. As long as people are still spending way too much time in front of their computers, the blog will live on. I do think that the so-called "blogosphere" has grown large enough that it's impossible to comment on its usefulness or significance as a whole. But, as with any other form of media, people seek out their little niches that they focus on, thereby filling out the market demand for any of a number of blog categories and topics.
Blogs are definitely a good way to get news out fast to people, way faster than print. They are also a good way for people to release their frustrations out to an equally frustrated audience. And they are a good place for budding writers to hone their craft.
I personally think blogs lead more people to write in general. For some reason, many people are more willing to air their crazy ideas and warped thoughts in a publicly accessible forum than they are to scribble them in a personal journal intended for their eyes only. This is probably some sort of comment on the human condition that I will refrain from exploring.
Blogs remind me of zines, in that people often start them in a fit of creativity and then abandon them shortly afterwards. Most zines don't make it past one or two issues. And most blogs probably don't make it past a few months, at the most.
Whether blogs are having any type of measurable "impact" on anything is debatable. I don't feel like I've gained much from reading blogs, which might be why I've stopped reading them for the most part. The only real value I ever saw in them was that it was a good way to keep in touch with far-flung friends. But ultimately I consider blogs to be a waste of time that I could be spending doing something in the real world, as opposed to the virtual one.
Working in front of a computer all week has turned me into somewhat of a Luddite in my free time.
Blogs as a source of social commentary or political opinion are of little value to me. I have little interest in random didactic rantings from people who I do not know or share common priorities with. For me, there are very very few blogs I look at with any frequency (this is one of them), and those fall into two categories, or a mixture thereof: 1. People w/ whom I have some common interest, i.e., triathlon or ultra-cycling blogs (and of those the only ones I check routinely are those of people who I personally know), and 2. Blogs of family/friends who I like to keep in touch with and see what sort of things they are up to.
My primary reason for blogging is mostly as a personal record, kind of like an e-scrapbook. It serves to update those people who are interested enough in what I'm up to to check on it, for those who ultimately don't care, it saves them the hassle of deleting an unwanted email.
On rare occasions, a blog post can strike a nerve with the broader internets, witness Bohnsack's Broken Ankle Bonanza, and to a far more limited extent, some of the folks that have asked me questions about hip arthroscopy.
Finally, should some useful way of archiving the information present itself (perhaps some sort of system where information is placed permanently in a group of thin sheets that are then placed in sequential order), I imagine that these posts may be of interest to later generations. Kids, grandkids, etc.
The primary value to blogging, in my mind, is an accessible, convenient way to maintain connections that are all too easily lost.
The best summary of the Power of Blogs I have read can be found in 'The Long Tail' by Chris Anderson.
The bloggers are smarter and more dedicated than news media journalists.
The impact of a blog is proportional to the impact you want it to have, I suspect. If you want to impact the tarantula-roasting nomadic cultures of the Amazon, it might be difficult. If you want to reach out to chicken-fried-stead-versus-pork-fried-pork debate over America's favorite meat-fried-meat, then you could probably be very successful.
I blog as a way to not have to repeat myself. I don't like mass mailing emails. I don't really like being included in mass emails. I found blogging to be a very cathartic and healing experience at a time in my adult life when shame and humiliation would have otherwise consumed me. More importantly, I enjoy sharing the things that impact me, make me laugh, make me proud, or make me sit up and take notice.
I think the impact of blogging won't be really assessable for a few years yet. Right now, it feels as if it is a frenetic, direction-less, primordial soup of ridiculousness, with, as Sean mentioned about the zine, most blogs being adopted and abandoned with similar rapidity. But, there's the flip side of the coin as Nathan mentioned about maintaining otherwise unmaintainable connections. This is one way that we can maintain relationships in a growingly virtual-reality-driven culture.
I would suggest that blogs will end up serving as great historical fodder for review in 10, 20, 50 years and so on, showing how the human creature evolved in its thinking and interpersonal interactions. It will show what we've known all along: opinions are like bellybuttons - everyone has 'em.
Me, too. That's why I blog. I can yammer ceaselessly in cyberspace and not worry if someone is or isn't listening. I've rethought my blogging identity and contribution before - hence the domain name change and basic alteration of approach and content. I find myself wandering back through Bohnsack's blog and seeing what he was up to 3 or 4 years ago and being relatively amazed at how his life has traveled.
To conclude, if one blogs for the self-effacing purpose of simply staking claim to a piece of internet real estate, then that's potentially space wasted. If one blogs for the purpose of edifying those who visit, staying connected to those whom they love, and reaching out to make new friends that they would otherwise never have known, then I think blogging is a unique and spectacular thing.
I'm not virgin to most things, but blogging is one of them. I have looked at a blog before (I have memory of two: a politcal blog and a blog on knitting - both subjects that I like very much)but this is my first post to a blog. The influence of blogging does not really affect my life on a daily basis - but I guess I would say if some stuff hits a blog and it goes mainstream I might hear about it and would have to say I would only tune in to such things when it comes to politics.
I don't think blogging will have a long lasting effect on our culture expect possibly helping people feel like they can connect with others that are of like mind or are friends and family. That's not a bad thing, but now I am just rambling, which is what most blogging is all about.
I don't read many blogs, they are interesting but I guess I prefer face-to-face, in person communication. I can't really relate to the blogging culture probably due to my age and generation. I try not to spend too much time at the computer as there are other things I prefer doing.
i greatly appreciate all the feedback on the topic of blogs and their impact/influence/utility. i believe that there are a great deal of crap blogs out there, and perhaps too many blogs in general-- but it is an excellent virtual soap-box to stand upon and tell your story. whether it be focused on cookery or crookery, a blog gives each of us an opportunity to let our perspective be heard. i am anxious to look back after some time has passed to see how much or little blogging affects our attitudes, beliefs, interactions, and culture.
my take on blogs? hmmm...
i see blogs both ways. i see it as a useful tool given the proper amount of discretion (apply liberally). i also see it as a huge waste of bandwidth. it really depends on who is doing the blogging and the subject of the blog.
personally, i have learned some pretty useful stuff reading blogs. likewise, i have also been quite amused by them. but then again, the real downfall of blogs (given its inherent subjective nature) is the intentional use of misleading information. bias detracts from the functionality of the blog. it is inevitable i suppose, but once you are able to effectively discern between truth and bullshit - the blog becomes a much more attractive venue for information.
call me a hypocrite, but another type of blog i like to steer clear of is rants. i have enough problems as it is trying to see the glass half full, so i don't need to be reminded how the world is going down the shitter. of course, if you are turning to the internet for edification - i suppose you have more important issues to contend with. however, it is quite a nice sensation to be able to compose a paragraph or two of as many swear words as you can without sounding too ignorant. god bless swear words :)
blogs are just an easy way to voice your opinions - nothing more, nothing less. likewise, "comments" are the way of letting you know that you have been heard. comments are nice :)
I'm like Susan. I have only read a few posts on people's personal blogs, and found a site or two about modern design that I kept going to but now can't find...so I'm not real experienced with them...heck. Today I navigated YouTube for the first time on my own.
But, I have been thinking that I should read blogs more, to help me learn how to speak and behave, since I could use some training and pointers on that.
Writing these personal thoughts on this public forum makes me feel a bit eerie. But, I've read them over and think they aren't that strange sounding, although I've never spoken them to anyone before. So, that's my take.
This is Sam Gault. Your coworker / subordinate. I too am a blogger. And this is my handle. Check out my blog - because I would like for you contribute. If you are interested.
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