How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love The Blog
I like blogs.
The sort of blog I suppose many of you are most familiar with - which is also my personal favorite - is the type with amusing personal anecdotes or observations, the sort that would have serious discussions about the best Deep Space Nine episode.
Too often, though, these blogs are just plain bad. I know I could do without, perhaps, the vague rants about how much the author hates traitors and backstabbers, or the bulletins with fifty things-you-never-knew-about-me-unless-you-read-the-last-survey-I-posted.
Leave the petty squabbles and inane trivia to Myspace, I say. That's what it's there for.
Of course, there are also blogs that talk about important things that actually matter. They have their place.
For example: I don’t know about you, but that whole business with the National Intelligence Estimate and the Iraq War might be a little mention-worthy. Something that's a little more important than, say, the death of the world’s heaviest monarch.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand the appeal of reading a blog unless it really has something going for it. Anyone can write on a blog, so the appeal of writing on a blog is easy enough to understand – that’s just a matter of human nature.
People like to spout off their opinions. Annoying one’s fellow man is a most noble hobby. You read it here first.
Maybe if a blog had something really special, something that lets it carve out its own niche in the wall of Online Time-Wasting, it could be really good. Political blogs, of course, never grow tiresome – except when they do – but they nearly always meet with success if they’re well-written and well-marketed.
You might dismiss entertainment blogs for either being an internet gossip column or for being preoccupied generating unwarranted hype all over the place, but because an entertainment blog gave us Snakes on a Plane as we know it, I really can’t get too mad.
Maybe, then, the best sort of blog is the sort that melds these all together. Multiple contributors, all talking about some thing or another – a smorgasbord of topics and references. You’d never know what you’d be getting when you check it out, but you’ll know that it’ll be something worth checking out.
That's the sort of thing you can expect to read on - drumroll, please - this very blog. That is, a little bit of everything. From self-important opinion articles provided by yours truly to insightful commentary on things that actually matter, it will all be here for your reading pleasure.
Best of all, as a direct result of how I'm not the only contributor, I just know we’ll have something more worthwhile than how much fun "Trials and Tribble-ations" is. I know I won't.
The sort of blog I suppose many of you are most familiar with - which is also my personal favorite - is the type with amusing personal anecdotes or observations, the sort that would have serious discussions about the best Deep Space Nine episode.
Too often, though, these blogs are just plain bad. I know I could do without, perhaps, the vague rants about how much the author hates traitors and backstabbers, or the bulletins with fifty things-you-never-knew-about-me-unless-you-read-the-last-survey-I-posted.
Leave the petty squabbles and inane trivia to Myspace, I say. That's what it's there for.
Of course, there are also blogs that talk about important things that actually matter. They have their place.
For example: I don’t know about you, but that whole business with the National Intelligence Estimate and the Iraq War might be a little mention-worthy. Something that's a little more important than, say, the death of the world’s heaviest monarch.
Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t understand the appeal of reading a blog unless it really has something going for it. Anyone can write on a blog, so the appeal of writing on a blog is easy enough to understand – that’s just a matter of human nature.
People like to spout off their opinions. Annoying one’s fellow man is a most noble hobby. You read it here first.
Maybe if a blog had something really special, something that lets it carve out its own niche in the wall of Online Time-Wasting, it could be really good. Political blogs, of course, never grow tiresome – except when they do – but they nearly always meet with success if they’re well-written and well-marketed.
You might dismiss entertainment blogs for either being an internet gossip column or for being preoccupied generating unwarranted hype all over the place, but because an entertainment blog gave us Snakes on a Plane as we know it, I really can’t get too mad.
Maybe, then, the best sort of blog is the sort that melds these all together. Multiple contributors, all talking about some thing or another – a smorgasbord of topics and references. You’d never know what you’d be getting when you check it out, but you’ll know that it’ll be something worth checking out.
That's the sort of thing you can expect to read on - drumroll, please - this very blog. That is, a little bit of everything. From self-important opinion articles provided by yours truly to insightful commentary on things that actually matter, it will all be here for your reading pleasure.
Best of all, as a direct result of how I'm not the only contributor, I just know we’ll have something more worthwhile than how much fun "Trials and Tribble-ations" is. I know I won't.
posted by Benjamin Baxter at 10:33 AM
2 comments
