I flat out confess.
Sometimes I do scratch my head and wonder how certain blogs become so big and how some "writers" become celebratorial - my word, deal with it. It's not like I'm gonna win a Pelitzer.
The intensity of each scratch increased substantially after seeing this video featuring Jimmy Kimmel interviewing an editor (Emily Gould) from a site called Gawker (the name says it all, doesn't?) Think Jimmy was mad? I think he has a point.
These people make money running big blogs. The least they can do is at least try and speak intelligently. That's the funny thing about bloggers who gossip, they don't articulate their defense all that well.
I looked up the editor's name, I came across a massive, poorly written 10 or 12 page essay by her in, get this, the New York Times! I read the first two and could do no more. I went to eat a banana instead.What the heck is going on? It seems like both print and online media are unsure.
I see both sides and have to admit, I'm not terribly impressed by how blogs behave sometimes. A lot of it is, well, questionable no matter how you spin it. But hey, I'm sure something good will come out of it.
Still, blogging is a great way to accommodate the supply of great writing talent who would otherwise not be heard. A segment of society (call it a phenomena) decided to communicate outside the traditional outlets. Blogs are forcing a new avenue. View it like an unpaved road.
The question is: who gets to pave it?
Before Neil McKenty spoke about his blog in a study group at M.I.L.R.,last spring, I had never been on a blog. I must admit that I have checked on some and never touched them again, much less wrote anything there. The language the subjects and the comments were outrageous when not simply obscene.
ReplyDeleteI may be an hold fogey but I still believe in respect and decency.
I got caught up in the whirlwind in the beginning thinking it was the only way to get noticed. I would sometimes leave contrarian comments on political blogs just for its own sake. In other words, I would sound like a neo-con on a liberal blog and vice-versa.
ReplyDeleteThen I sobered up.
I tend to get attracted to blogs where the community is spirited, civil and intelligent - it doesn't matter what the topic is.
Truth is even popular blogs (especially political ones) have a comments section that leaves me wanting. No one seems capable of containing their anger. You can be angry and debate the issues with dignity. Too often they sound like 18 year-old kids who know nothing about nothing. They know the big words but not how to apply them or contextualize or even keep perspective.
Meh. That's just my take.
Hope you watched the video. It was great. Kimmel really didn't appreciate the editor and it showed.
I just watched the video you mentioned. I think it'scary to listen to Ms Gould, but then Kimmel did set her up. Do we now settle scores on the internet?
ReplyDeleteSpooky!
Sppoky? Perhaps. But reality.
ReplyDeleteI suppose he set her up but she still couldn't find her footing. She was on a television program. As such she was a gateway to an entire audience who may not use the internet. Ugh.
Look, sites like Gawker (I presume it's a derivative of the word and verb "to gawk." Though I hope not since it essentially means to stare at something looking like an idiot) are "giving what the people want."
There's a demand; or else they wouldn't be popular right?
The question becomes, philosophically, just because people like garbage does it mean you should fill that demand? A realist will say yes or else someone else will do it.
Personally, I would never be involved with something like Gawker. It's not my thing.
I'm not terribly impressed by how many popular blogs behave neither. I saw the movie. Sometimes one's got to have the courage to be different.
ReplyDeleteUnless one really aims at becoming rich.
Don't want always to sound anti-capitalist, but at the base of this decadence there is advancing greed as the only dominant value, in my view .
I mean, this is why they give worse and worse garbage to the public, as you say. They get money out of it. In a world where only money counts, why shouldn't they.
ReplyDeleteThis way, more and more idiots and brutish people all over the place, New World Old World making no difference. And education, lower and lower. Only moronities. I pity young people.
If in other parts of the world people still have other values besides money - and so many blogs seem evidence of it - the West will soon be f*****
PS
ReplyDeleteI am not anti-capitalist and am not communist, of course.
But if getting more rich means becoming more and more stupid, the whole thing might collapse. Education is important in order to compete. Hard to say what should be done, but something must be done.
Not if our blogs can help it!
ReplyDeleteMeh.
Some say the West is already done.
Correction:
ReplyDeleteEducation is important for competition but also for happiness. Seeing ALL in terms of market is misguiding in my view. There must be other things besides economic competition and money.
The West done? Who knows ...