Blogging is Not Stupid
The other day I stumbled across this article titled “Blogging is Stupid” and couldn’t resist the urge to head over to the site to get the authors justification on why he made such a bold title. Now of course, I immediately disagreed with the title, but I think everyone has a right to their own opinion, no matter what the subject matter is. And although I may disagree, I will still listen to what they have to say.
Now as soon as I read the title of that article, I immediately thought of the value that blogging has brought to me, not only in with my own writing, but information that I have gained reading other blogs. Within the design community, there are tons of different blogs that you can read to gain information about the industry of design, all the way down to actual techniques, and I must say that there are a couple sites that have gotten me a long way with what I do, just from providing useful information, especially being fairly new within the industry.
The author of this “Blogging is Stupid” article makes a bunch of different points on why they think blogging is stupid, and I only want to bring my opinion to a few of them:
2.) Blogs encourage updates that aren’t needed
Ok so let’s say that there is a store you like. You go there often because they always have good stuff. If in a year, the store hasn’t gotten any new merchandise, you will become a little disappointed right? What’s the difference with a blog? If I go to a site and like the content, and the author of that site sees that their site is getting traffic, isn’t it obviously for a reason, so why not update the site more often. It’s not that it’s needed, but rather they should want to. Any business would want to provide good products/services for it’s customers, and so should bloggers.
3.) Blogs are a pattern, not a theory.
I’ve talked about trends before so we know that they can be good for an industry, and I will stand by that. I seem to remember iPods being a pattern as well and look what that has done for Apple, and music. “When a blog is used as the only feature of a web site, it’s like having a house made of patios and no bedrooms.” I beg to differ, and the sites that I’ve learned from the most are only blog sites.
5.) Blogs ruin the art of conversation on the Internet
Blogs have made conversation great on the web, because it gives people a chance to voice their opinion, and get outside feedback right on the site. Of course moderating comments out of context is very useful, but conversation can be great on blogs. If I want to debate on a topic that I disagree with, am I supposed to call this person? Email back and forth a ton of times? No, so what does that leave? On a blog, I can voice my opinion, as well as hear other opinions of people besides the author.
6.) Blogs put good information in jeopardy
Good information is always in jeopardy no matter if it’s on the net, on tv, or in a paper. What do you think tabloids are, yet people seem to read them all the time. It’s up to the reader to believe whether or not the content is relevant or not. “Some of the best stuff on the Internet is published on a blog, unfortunately.” Yes alot of good stuff is on blogs, and that’s good, because it’s uncensored pure content.
Now maybe this author has had bad experiences with blogs to the point where they came to the realization that blogs are stupid. Blogs seemed to have brought the internet to life in the last few years, and have been fairly beneficial to the internet as a whole. Of course where there’s good, there’s bad, and you will have the certain amount of blogs that are bad, but is it possible to even have good without bad?
Aside from that, when you look at sites like 9rules, and what they’ve done for it’s community to showcase the best content in the world, you can’t help to to see what the benefits of blogging can do, if it is done right. Businesses have become closer with their customers through blogs in the sense that their customers can stay up-to-date on what is going on within the business. I will always stand by my opinion on thinking that blogging is, and can be very good. Would you agree? Or does this author have a point?
6 Comments
Regarding the article you link to, I do disagree with some of the points made - such as ‘blogging is a hobby that doesn’t pay off’ (people want to improve English skills, etc) for instance, but for more of the points I have to agree.
Considering 90% of the blogs out there, points like “blogs are the new Geocities” and “blogs give authors a narcissistic attitude” are absolutely true. 90% of blogs *do* suck - it’s the minority that are worth looking at.
“14. Come on. COME ON. Blogs are stupid.” but as they say… “6. [...] Some of the best stuff on the Internet is published on a blog.
Rik, I completely understand that there are lots of blogs out there that are worthless, but I was more or less basing subject of this post in regards to the title of that authors article. Overall, blogging, in my opinion, is not stupid.
It’s like saying computers are stupid. Well they certainly aren’t stupid, but you do have people that use computers for back reasons like illegal hacking, pirating software, etc. Do you see what I mean? It’s like the content of that article doesn’t exactly go with the title. Does that make sense? Maybe I should have mentioned that in my post.
Well, yeah, I totally agree about it’s like saying computers are stupid. It’s not blogs the guy has a problem with - it’s the 90% of blog authors!
I think blogging can be stupid; it depends on how you blog and who you blog for. In some respects I agree with a few of the points above, however to proclaim that “blogging is stupid” is just plain thoughtless bullshit.
I read your reponse to my essay shortly after you published it, and the reason I haven’t responded until now is because I think slowly.
Rik Lomas has the crux of me in two sentences; I’ve got a problem with at least 90% of blog authors (I’d rather say 99.999%). My message is for them. It could also be for the two other bloggers who produce valuable content that couldn’t fit in any other medium but a blog, if my message happens to prevent their blogs from rotting.
“Blogs encourage updates that aren’t needed.” You shouldn’t think of your web site as a retail store. A retail store choses to source its contents from hundreds of suppliers so that it can focus on activities that drive sales. On a blog, your brain is the one and only supplier, and if you think of your site as like a store that needs to put new material on display to drive visitors, then you’ll die. You’ll die of overextension. You’ll die of burnout. You’ll die of running faster than the natural rate your mind discovers things. You’ll become a plastic version of yourself.
Blogs “afford” the update the way a knob “affords” turning, or a flat metal plate on a door “affords” pushing and a handle “affords” pulling. The cap on my Zippo lighter “affords” flicking it open with my thumb, and consequentially I spent hours doing nothing but. A Wiki “affords” embellishment, and sometimes I think this is better. Blogs afford something that’s like sugar to a diabetic with a sweet tooth. It’s an unhealthy exploitation of an instinct that used to be useful.
“Blogs are a pattern, not a theory.” I’ve got role models and tutors who chose to communicate through blogs, too, but I know that they are the gift, and not the blog they publish with. I don’t think blogs are redeemed by the people who use them. I’d still love the same ideas if they were published in a book, a newspaper column, or a Usenet post.
“Blogs ruin the art of conversation on the Internet”. I went to pains to explain how there were other mechanisms for voicing yourself on the Internet and having a conversation. Blogs make it possible to voice yourself like how a soapbox makes it possible to stand taller than other men. Blogs don’t make it possible to express yourself to a worldwide audience, the Internet does. I think blogs constrain thought and expression more than they permit it, because they do so in a format that requires unnecessary categorization.
I don’t like writing this in a text box that’s an inch high and three inches wide on my screen, but that’s what I have to do to reply to your blog post, because your blog narcisistically establishes a world half shaped by the checkboxes you click on a configuration screen, and half shaped by an apathetic software developer.
I’m afraid of clicking on “Submit Comment” and being refused voice by a glitch. In a Usenet newsreader I’d have the kind of control that some people are scared of.
If you think the mentally retarded child of a text editor imprissoned between tags has made conversation great on the web, then you must admire Ronco for their contributions to the culinary arts.
“Good information is always in jeopardy no matter if it’s on the net, on tv, or in a paper.”
You’re correct, and I didn’t think about that properly.
Imagine you had a system that could protect real information forever. It would be distributed, so that no single faliure could endanger the system. And it’d have a wide open format. Blogs don’t give us this, but we could have built it anyway.
*cough* and when do blogs enhance conversation when comments await “moderation”?
Taketh away control. Giveth nothing. Reap what they sow.