I woke up to see this on Twitter from heathalouise: "One of my friends is on Gawker. Way to go @sassydotnet!" and immediately felt anxious and self-conscious. What could it be? What did I say? Why are they making fun of me? Way to go, self esteem.
It turned out to be nothing much — not fame, not even microfame — just an image of what people on Twitter were saying about Arianna Huffington's interview on the Daily Show last night that included a tweet of mine. Ironically, I felt self-conscious about posting that in the first place because I wasn't enough of a writer, or a blogger, to be able to articulate my objections to the whole conversation.
I mean, I don't want to just sound like an old man insisting that back in my day we knew how to blog, son. We did it by hand, up hill, both ways. Because that isn't my objection, not really. (Except the part where I have to point out that there are BLOGS and then there are BLOG POSTS. Calling each entry a BLOG just makes you sound like someone's grandma going on about the talking picture box.) It's that she's conflating "blogging" with "unpaid freelance writing." She's saying all writing done on the Internet is blogging and all blogging is a hippy free-for-all done for the sheer pleasure of "connecting" with others who share your "passion." And that just sounds like someone who thinks they've just found the secret to getting something for nothing.
Even more disappointing was Jon Stewart's side of the conversation. Part of me wants to think he was just responding to Lady Crackpot Overlord, but he sounded like someone who thinks people who spend too much time on the internet (where "too much" is defined as "anything more than the time it takes to check your email, which I think is dumb also") is an unwashed, poorly socialized basement-dweller. "When does the need become pathological?" Come ON, Jon. As Clay Shirky said, "No one who works in TV gets to ask that question." We're not taking time from washing, socializing and moving out of basements to hang out on the Internet. We're taking it from that other medium, you know, the one you make your living at?
TV wasn't the anti-Christ and neither is the Internet. Not even blogs.
Well, it turns out you CAN articulate your reasons. And quite well, especially for a Family Guy fan.
Knee-jerk anti-internet postures are just boring. Being "against" the internet or blogs or twitter or what have you is a preference, not a manifesto. Not that you or I personally know anyone who take those positions.
Posted by: mysterioso on December 4, 2008 04:51 PMNot only are there blogs and blog POSTS, but there are also blogs vs. JOURNALS, which is what we called 'em back in the day when we had to write 'em in HTLM code because we didn't have wysiwyg software. But then I'm *really* old!
BTW, you must either have been to Brasil, are Brasilian or have Brasilian friends. "Saudade" is one of my favorite words.
Posted by: Bev on December 6, 2008 01:56 AMmysterioso is back!
bev - right! i just figure "blog" has won the battle so i roll with it. and yes, i have a complicated brasilian connection to saudade. it's such a great word.
Posted by: beth on December 6, 2008 10:36 AM