Well, I was just reading the Sunday Times article about blogging, and I felt that I should give my two cents worth on it. Actually, I would have posted about it had I read it on Sunday itself. As it is, I receive my newspapers a day late, due a nice little arrangement that my family has with the neighbors. Well, enough about that, lets get down to the post proper (Its kind of ironic, huh? How an article about blogs is being talked about in a blog. That's life for you, I suppose.)
One of the first things that strike you as you first gaze upon the article is "i want to be famous.com"...no, that's not right. That is how I would write it. Instead, the article puts it as "iwant2bfamous.com", in a vain attempt to imitate standard SMS short forms (which I personally do not use. The SMS is mocking the English language! There's a GP question on that if I'm not mistaken.)
All at once, you know where the article is going. It is, as you probably already know, talking about how bloggers are narcissistic, and that their blogs are all about "me, myself, and I". Okay, granted that. That is the way most blogs are orientated anyway. In fact, the article even goes so far as to present statistical information to you. In their own words, “…73% of them said their blogs were personal…the remaining 27% wrote non-personal blogs.” (I hope that I do not get into trouble with the ST for writing that. After all, I am ignorant of the laws governing intellectual piracy in Singapore, but that won’t help me, as I can envision the judge saying this “Ignorance isn’t a good excuse.” So, ST, if you are reading this, try not to sue me.)
Not that I have anything against that. On the contrary, I actually agree with them. It is easy to see that the so-called “Age of the Self” has fallen upon us. You do not need to have millions of blogs sprouting like mushrooms to tell you that. No, indeed. I mean, just look that Singaporeans! Its only been some time back that we have been ranked among the worst courteous countries in the world in the recent Reader’s Digest survey (not that you needed one. It is common knowledge that Singaporeans are not courteous, to say the least. Haha.)
There are some who would say that this (meaning the whole blogging craze) would have an unsavory effect on the world’s teenagers. They worry that the over indulgence (for lack of a better word) of oneself would only serve to make them more self-centered, in an increasingly selfish society. After all, if you think about yourself all day, sooner or later you would stop caring about other people.
If you read most self-orientated blogs, you would notice that most of the posts are blasting at their school (if the poster is a student), blasting at their boss (if they are working), blasting that the last bugger to pissed them off, and basically blasting anything in general. Not very healthy for the poster’s psyche, if I can say so myself. These are angry folks, people.
However, by posting all their frustrations on their blogs, they might be removing this anger from their systems, so to speak. Which might be good their they physiological well-being. But wait a minutes – didn’t you just say that such a doing isn’t good for one’s mind? Yes, I did. My answer is this: I do not know.
But what I do know is this: Through the many postings on the blog, the poster might acquire a host of loyal fans. When the poster is down, the fans (if they can be called that) can post comments to cheer the poster up. Just knowing that someone is on their side, that someone know what you are going through (of course they do – they read your blog!), that you are not alone, can do wonders for oneself. It is like having a friend, only that they are not actually there.
Another thing about blogs, and today’s’ kids in general: We have no qualms about giving out personal information. How often do we give out our birthdays, email address etc. etc. without second thought when signing up at websites? All sense of privacy is gone. But this is another topic for me to rant about some other time. For now, I will have to close up this post soon.
So, what is my point for this entire post? Its simple: I don’t have one. Yup, that 700 odd words you just read are basically useless. They are fit for the bin. If I pass that up to my GP tutor, I probably won’t get anything higher than an F (not that you can get much lower than an F). But in my pointless essay, lies my point (Okay…think that through. Take a deep breath. Read that again. Then move on.)
Most blogs online right now are pointless. People in general do not want to read about your daily ramblings. It is boring. The few who stand out do so because they are controversial. They go against the norm, what we have come to expect of blogs. (Example: That blog about the gay couple. Bet you that you know about it and will remember few months down the road). In that sense, my blog isn’t much different, only that instead of posting about myself, I post about events that I feel like picking a bone with at that time. It just so happened that I just read this article in the Sunday Times, and so it got chosen.
Some Singaporean bloggers posts in very bad English, eg. Singish. If you come across any of such blogs, do us all a favor and send them a DoS attack. It is to save the entire of civilization from being polluted by their language. Thank you.*
*this is said tongue in cheek. On no accounts should you actually do a DoS attack on such sites. Good luck anyway.