Went to see Television Sunday night at the Great American Music Hall with three old friends, all of whom are fairly hip and web savvy, none of whom have ever heard the word “blog.” I explained what I could but it reminded me that while we may be around the tipping point, we’re still a microcosm. I became convinced while spacing out to Tom Verlaine and Richard Lloyd’s intertwining leads that the good, bad, and ugly aspects of blogging are all the same: a voice for anyone who cares to exercise theirs, a soapbox for anyone who can lift themselves over the (shrinking all the time) technical hurdles.
If Safire oversimplifies the meaning of blogging, anyone who disagrees can comment on that. If I hate you, I can say so. If you disagree with me, you’re free to fire back. In an attention economy, I’m free to say whatever I like, and you’re free to value my contribution or change the channel as you will.
Scripting News links to a Megnut article on What We’re Doing When We Blog, adding:
Meg, one of our most experienced and thoughtful writers, has spent years immersed in the medium.
This, I believe, is key. Blogging is a writer’s medium (more, I can argue, than a designer’s medium) and a new one at that. There is no substitute for doing it steadily, and repetition and practice lead to facility and potentially to avenues of creativity, expressiveness, and communication unanticipated in advance.