My years of resisting pressure to join the mainstream flood of pop culture as it places its every half-processed thought, gripe and ejaculation into the ether have come to an end. Dear reader (so far, only me), I have officially joined the blogosphere, in a sort of social experiment. I am using this to answer a few immediate questions: how deeply can individual thoughts be buried into the ether relative to their retrievability via google, and how truly engaging can this activity really be? I speculate that this latter question will be a function of both life here in Ottawa, and my own bureacrat's reticence.
In any case, if there's one thing that blogging has proven is that virtually everyone on it has some sort of opinion. The best ones come with supporting information, others are simply spontaneous rants, while others document the day-to-day ennui of those whose primary qualification is a connection the internet. The blogosphere has become a gold mine for social science graduate students, a barometer of popular opinion as well as an influence and a postcard from the edge.
With that, I cut the electric ribbon. At this point, the band should strike up with
an uplifting tune, preferrably with a soaring chorus, something like "Solsbury Hill" or something.
3 comments:
A fine post. Well worded, intelligent and thoughtful - a key insight to the genius that lies behind it.
Yes, Internet blogging is definitely an enabler, empowering practically anyone to spout forth to the entire world. Everyone can truly be a critic.
And as for the influence of bloggers, particularly those who post up-to-the-minute news, here is an interesting article from one of the Time Magazine blogs. Basically, in order to be linked-to by others and get more eyes on your page (which has implications for advertising), it appears that taking a more provocative and bombastic journalstic approach helps, regardless of the quality, research, and ethics of the content.
Hi Electric Oatmeal - I am sure that your blog will not be bombastic and overblown. You have a nice turn of frase. I am glad you joined the crowd.
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