Friday, December 02, 2005

Survey of the Blogsphere

In the past year or so I’ve basically used this blog as a convenient way to keep a registry of my opinions and various states of mind. My interactions with the rest of the blog world have been relatively minimal and I’ve made no attempt to really see what other people were doing on their own blogs. Well today I broke the pattern and surfed around to at least 200 different blogs. Here’s what I’ve found in my completely unscientific survey...

About 25% are in some language I don’t read fluently enough to understand. Unfortunately, these all look DAMN interesting and it’s annoying that I can’t access those wells of infinite knowledge. No doubt the answers to all my most pressing questions are contained there in indecipherable Estonian.

Yet another 30% are either incomprehensible or inane. The majority of these are comprised of entries like this:

so then I went over to Jessica’s house and we played playstation for a while and then we called up Joe and Jack was there with him and he said hi so we said hi too and Jessica and I talked about how totally geeky Jack was so then we went to get some nachos at taco bell but they were out of cheese and that sucked because I just love cheese...

These basically amount to online diaries. Clearly, these are of great interest to the author but for the rest of us it’s a complete loss. No harm no foul in my book, at least they’re taking the time to write out their thoughts which is never a bad thing.

Another 25% of these seem to be dedicated to commenting on and archiving the news. Some of these are of course a total waste of time; you can only reread the same news article so many times. It might be amusing to look back on in a dozen years, but in the here and now it’s just so much more repetition. On the flip side, some of these are genuinely interesting. I especially enjoy the viewpoint of the blogger at http://islandmonkeyworld.blogspot.com/. For some reason, the opinions of people outside the U.S. always interest me, especially when the involve the various ways in which the U.S. is screwing up abroad. The award for best artwork goes to this blogger: http://neilshakespeare.blogspot.com/. I half expect to see President Bush conducting the construction of Bruegel’s ‘Tower of Babel’ the next time I view the page. The owner of http://farkleberries.blogspot.com/ falls into this category as well and has one of the best looking blogs I’ve seen so far. All that said, there are a LOT of people in this category so I’ll officially leave it to them and keep all such content out of my blog entirely. I dare say they are much more interested in it and better informed than I am. Keep up the good work!

The remaining 20% is a mishmash...

A significant subset of them seem to be selling some specific product or advertising a business. I’ll admit that I don’t understand how blogger really serves that purpose adequately. I guess if all you want is a free website then it does what you need it to.

Some just like to provide information. For example this blog is full of somewhat random facts about Ancient Rome: http://ancientromeblog.blogspot.com/. I categorize my own ‘Rob Reads’ blogs in this category. Clearly, it’s not the best vehicle for transmitting this sort of data but it does have the advantages of being easy to do, cheap and easy to share. Not exactly the first place you’d want to cite in your PhD thesis but good for a casual read or two.

Saddest of all is the ‘dead’ blog, an idea that just never quite managed to make it past the first post. Examples abound: http://lacassosrue32.blogspot.com/ and you have to feel somewhat sorry for them. Who knows what this person would have written if they’d just managed to keep going.

Anyway, in summary, I find that my cynicism about the content of the Blogsphere was only partially justified. There’s some really good content out there but sadly it’s buried in reams and reams of worthless blabbering. Not surprisingly, the contents of blogger reflect humanity at large. Luckily it’s much easier to detach yourself from a stupid blog than it is to extract yourself from a stupid conversation.

More importantly, this excursion into all these other blogs has taught me a few cardinal rules of creating new entries:

1. Never talk about the news. There are already plenty of people doing that both on the internet and on television. People don’t need MORE news commentary.
2. If you find yourself using the name of someone you know, stop. Nobody will care about whatever you’re about to type except you.
3. Just after you finish your first blog entry containing a piece of your original poetry, immediately delete your blog and burn your computer.
4. Nobody ever reads more than the two most recent entries of your blog. Everything after that 2nd posting might as well be deleted because nobody has the patience to go any further.
5. Don’t worry about what other people might think of what you write in your blog. There’s no way they’ll ever be able to find you in real life. At least not without knowing how to use the internet... or a phone book... or directory assistance...

5 comments:

ISLAND MONKEY said...

Hey Rob, thanks for your comments about my blog.
Likewise I found this an interesting read too.
I agree there is certainly a lot of good stuff out there in the blogosphere but it takes time to find the more interesting, sane, intelligent, creative end of the sprectrum...
Keep up the ramblings...

Andrew Walker said...

Rob, about your statement. I cannot argue with you. Your point is justfied and rational, but my question to you is this, how good is good to be able to merit Heaven, and also, I want to introduce the idea of the possibility that the concept of Heaven has long been abused by evangelicals of my background. In my eyes, Heaven is not the point, but a glorious by product of being a follower and believer in and of Jesus Christ. Being a Christian means being forever transformed by the knowledge and grace of Christ, not just essentially one day dying and going to Heaven. So, say the mass murderer accepts Christ and goes to Heaven, looking back, wouldn't he have a crushing sense of despair that his life was wasted? Sure, he is in Heaven, but missed out on part of the journey. And yes, I know many good people that will probably go to Hell, but that's not the worst part for me atleast. The worst part is that they are missing out on a great life right NOW. If you want, we can explore the idea of grace as it pertains to salvation (not exclusively Heaven). Anyway, thanks for your question. I welcome honest and intelligent questions such as yours. Blessings, Andrew.

Please write back!

Anonymous said...

i like you. you contemptplate.

Anonymous said...

"...used this blog as a convenient way to keep a registry of my opinions and various states of mind." Seems to be a good use of a blog imho.

Agh! I hear you on the incomprehensible and inane blogs! I hate those. It's worse when one of my LJ friends blogs turns out to be closer to that, and not as interesting as it first appeared...

Now I have not conducted such a thorough survey as you seem to have here, but "the news" lauds the blogs that comment on the news as bringing fresh and different perspectives. Of course they would say that. Sheesh. How exactly did you conduct this survey? Did you just google "blog?" Last I heard google wasn't indexing any blogs...

I have to check out that Roman blog!! And a few others you mentioned.

"Luckily it’s much easier to detach yourself from a stupid blog than it is to extract yourself from a stupid conversation." -- YES! That is one of the best things about blogs, I have to say!

"Just after you finish your first blog entry containing a piece of your original poetry, immediately delete your blog and burn your computer." Good advice I won't take! :-) I write very few poems anyway. But yeah, a lot I read ain't that great. In fact, lets count. Yes, one of three blog friends I know that write poetry regularly is actually good, imo.

"Nobody ever reads more than the two most recent entries of your blog. Everything after that 2nd posting might as well be deleted because nobody has the patience to go any further." Ain't that the truth!! I am the only person I know that digs up and reads old posts in any kind of effort to "keep up." And I often reply to old posts, no matter how old if I have something to say. No one as yet, returns the favor.

"Don’t worry about what other people might think of what you write in your blog. There’s no way they’ll ever be able to find you in real life. At least not without knowing how to use the internet... or a phone book... or directory assistance..." Yeah, not unless they're related to you, knew you before you started bloggin', and/or know where you live...

Charlie

dav said...

That's a very perceptive wrap-up of what's out there, and i agree about the news commentary thing.

My blog's a mix of many of the "don'ts" from those do's and don'ts. With an occasional "do". And much "do-do".

I have about one dozen (for some reason) loyal readers, and that's the only reason I don't stop writing in it.

Kinda like a band who keeps playing, even though there are only 10 people in the bar, 4 of whom are paying attention, and 2 that clap and hoot wildy after every song.

Enjoyed reading your theological observations by the way.