blogs are people too
when i went surfing through the pages of nyc bloggers, i couldn’t help but notice how many people have more links to other places than their own original thoughts, in any given post. perhaps this is only new to me. but the blogs i read fall in two main categories: they’re either impressively well-written and literarily bent, or they’re highly unique personal blogs [as i aspire to make mine]. that is, it’s a given that i’m not a fan of whinging livejournals or bad poetry.
apparently, i’m also not a fan of recycling pithy news briefs in blog form. i cannot tell you how blogs i clicked through today that covered the following current topics: con-ed’s little electrocution problem, DC’s wonkette, matt drudge/moby arguments, martha stewart’s hearing, dean’s rants… i’m just naming the ones that were incredibly prevalent both in the news and on the blogs. i’m not linking to these newsbits because it’s a waste of my time to even write out the tags.
now, i write my blog for a number of reasons. first, because i’m vain and like seeing my writing somewhere. second, because i love tinkering with the design, and using pretty colors. third, i sincerely do appreciate the cool community of people i’ve built up, either face-to-face or via our blogs/emails. i feel like i have a friend in every city now.
what i don’t do? i don’t blog to simply be a conduit for information. mainly because i hate writing tags, but also because i think you come here because you want a piece of me. if you wanted to know about paris hilton’s latest escapades, you’d go to the post. if you wanted restaurant reviews, you’d go to citysearch. and most of all, as politically aware and sensitive as i am, if you want someone’s intelligent perspective on global politics, you’d read thomas freidman. it’s not reflective of me if all i post about is politics, new york city news, or hollywood gossip. it’s not a personal weblog. it’s just adding to the information overload. i don’t mean to put anyone down that has a news-or-gossip-driven site. in fact, i really enjoy gawker and gothamist, mainly because they have such interesting ways of putting things. but i don’t consider those personal blogs. i consider them news sources, to an extent.
i’m not attacking anyone. the logical answer is, “you don’t like that blog-form? don’t read it.” given. but i’m such a big proponent of the blog-medium, as a way of building community and learning how to speak your mind, that i’m not sure how simply disseminating information and calling it a blog really fits into that vision. it’s simply not original. when i write something that makes you laugh, or makes you think, or even if you hate it – you didn’t read it any where else. you may compare me to this girl, that blog, but what i put here is distinctly my own. which, ostensibly, is why you’re here.
and that seems so much more personally valuable to me than recycling scraps of other people’s words without adding your own uniqueness to the fray.