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Dull Blogs of the World, Unite!
By ella | January 11, 2005
To the readers that came to me from the feature in The Independent “Have you read the one about me?” and who keep coming back I would like to say thanks for reading, especially as it seems that not all people agree that blogs or blogging are interesting.
There has been a surge of interest in the British media recently (in particular the British press) about blogging as they begin to cotton-on to the fact that blogging is perhaps THE next big web trend. But the article in the Independent (in which this blog was featured) couldn’t wait to argue that many personal journal-type blogs are dull, dull and dull again.
Above the article they featured a number of one-liners from blogs. It is odd that the article chose several blogs from celebrities (which are most likely faux blogs, written by assistants and PR people rather than the celebrities themselves). By their very nature they are going to be banal: Scully is hardly likely to say on her blog who she spent the night with last night. The four ‘unknown’ blogs were picked presumably to reflect the variety of bloggers out there in the blogosphere: a baby blog (that one’s mine), a teen-angst blog , the one-with-the-medical-condition and the all-out-weird blog . The journalist, Michael Bywater, argues in his article that many blogs are dull but he is not the first: John Dvorak has argued the same thing more than once and I’m sure there are plenty of others. Bywater appears to have chosen quotes designed to reflect the self-absorbed nature of many bloggers, celebrity or not. But what these blogs have in common (celebrity ones aside) is that they are written from the heart and often without any particular desire for an audience (although any blogger will tell you that when you start getting large numbers of people visiting your site, it is WAY COOL). I am entirely aware that unless you are a mum to small children, you probably don’t care that I want to pee in private one day. But if you are a mum to small children, peeing in private may be just one thing on a very long list of things you miss. And hearing that someone else is having the same troubles, well it can just make life that little bit easier, can’t it? Why else would I read Three Kid Circus and dooce regularly except to regain my own sanity? But I don’t write for an audience, I write because it helps me. ME. So perhaps I am self-absorbed. But other people write about their cats, their poetry, their divorce troubles. None of us is asking anybody else to read what we write unless they get something either from what we write or perhaps how we write it. So at the risk of repeating myself, Mr Bywater, you don’t have to read what’s written on a particular site, or indeed any site, if you don’t like it.
Bloggers are self-absorbed? Well, maybe. But for the readers of these blogs, they offer a window into someone else’s world and often a sense of being part of a larger community. And more importantly, for those writing blogs, if writing a personal diary online is their thing, who is anybody else to criticise?
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Categories: Mommyblogging, Meta-blogging
6 Comments
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Seems to me that a lot of traditional media types find it a wee bit galling that bloggers have found an effective way to circumvent the ad-driven newspaper/magazine channels and can voice their thoughts and opinions (uncensored) to a loyal audience.
Cheers
T.O. Mama (Jen)
It’s so true. If people don’t like blogs, they don’t have to read them. And not everyone wants to write a journal every day, but they might want to write one online.
I’m self-absorbed and I don’t care who knows it!
Oh I am certain that they do not mean our blogs. Our blogus (yours, mine and all the blogs that we read) these are the interesting blogs. They must mean those OTHER blogs, you know, the ones that WE do nto read.
I have droppin in to say hello and to add you to my blogroll. Lucky me.
I didn’t realise that this is a mum’s site. I am a Dad, and pee too, am I included in this debate?
On this topic of locks and their use, I have reached the point where I no longer mind if my daughter is there or not, the issue now for me is that I prefer he to stand behind me rather than curiously watching from the side.
Must be a guy thing….. ….
Children do not (nor indeed does this site) show any sex discimination when electing whether or not to join their parents in the loo/john.
At least mums don’t have everything ‘out there’ for their kids to see while they are peeing.