You know, I've been watching blogs for a shit ton longer than I've been writing them. They've changed, and not in a good way, from my perspective. Blogs a few years ago, would kick the shit out of today's blogs.
Back then, there was no such term as a blogosphere. Ask the IT guys where you work, ten years ago the Web was a joke, no one wanted to admit they were working on web-based marketing or inventory sytems. Fuck, these days the web is the shit. Anyone can have a website, Arianna proved that shit WORD.
Before there was a blogoshpere, there were just people. People putting shit out there for whoever was there. Before there was a blogosphere blogs were like space probes sending out radio waves into a chasm of unknown depth. Then one day tink a comment was born. A few (days) later we discovered, holy shit, there are other people talking out there. Plink a blogroll was born, a series of links to other people in the great beyond. Then before you know it, clang comments were born, and of course ping trackbacks evolved.
The blogs stood up on their hindlegs, understood their surroundings, and before you know it, they had turned into a bunch of self-righteous, soapboxing, sonsofwhores. It's shitty. I go from one site to another, and see the same issue turned inside out in two different directions. It's creeping into newsmedia too. I was at CBSmarketwatch a few days ago, and there was an article about how college grads are facing the best job market since 2000, the next day new hire stats come in at half the expected value.
Hi everyone, we live in an age where information has become immediate. You don't have to wait for postal mail, telegrams, couriers, telephones, faxes, delayed quotes or Matt Fucking Drudge. The information is out there, waiting for you. Matt Drudge just goes and gets it for you becuase he knows your dumb enough to think what he offers is some kind of service.
Before the word blog, we were just people fishing for contact in a supposedly barren ocean. Lo and behold, the barren ocean bears fruit, and years later we've got a waterway choked with unimaginable detritus.
Go home tourists. Go Home Blogspot, Blogger, 20six, and Huffington. Take us back to the days when the only people out here were the people who actually wanted to be here. Before blog was a tagline, before ad placement became a source of extra household income, before political machines enrolled blog sites to run their interference. Go the fuck home, nothing to see here.
Damn straight, I remember when the internet was basically a way to communicate with your friends in far off places. My blog was initially created to tell them all about what was happening with my family, job, etc. Oh and of course to rant about my shitty job at the time.
These half-wit political commentary blogs that are supposed to be gritty and edgy ad nauseum... gimme a break. And the ones who then say "CNN sucks and the Blogs are the way of the future." RIGHT... sure... CNN and their millions dollar budget to fly people around the world, they're nothing compared to some guy who hasn't showered in months ranting about the way the way the Left is fucking up the world.
And you want slanted reporting? I don't believe 1/8th of what I read in blogs, how many times have you read some blog about a blog about a blog about a blog about someone blogging about a news article . Yeah... unbiased my ass.
Don't get me wrong, I still post shit about politics sometimes, but I never once claimed to be an expert on the subject, I just can't contain the bile in my throat sometimes and it pops out as a post.