This is my first post in my new Blog, I had only intended to ask Kit if I could link to PBH, but he asked me to write as well. Kick ass for me. I love audiences. I’m cross posting ’cause fuck if I’m going to write it all again when Copy and Paste will do it for me. Not sure exactly what kind of content I’ll contribute here on PBH, but something will happen and it will all work out in the end. Either way, hello all. I’m the new guy.
I’ve finally launched my own private shouting booth. It was a long time coming, but I was able to rationalize my way out of embracing the vanity press since Live journal came on the scene. Truth be told I still don’t fully understand the “Blog” phenomenon, and the incessant need for folks to passively read other people’s opinions. Opinionated slants on anything don’t carry much weight with me. When too many opinions fall into the mix of any debate I think it dilutes the impact of the discussion and an issue can lose focus. Every time I see anything within the major news sphere that refers to blogs, bloggers, or the blogosphere as a credible and viable news alternative I want to stab someone, anyone, in the fucking eye.
I’m very much one of those mid-20s guys that has watched a major transformation in the way Americans receive and perceive information and data and I get that new and innovative ways of utilizing these new…”things” will develop, and it’s unpredictable. No one really knows were the new cultural offshoots will start. I get that. I really do, but I don’t get how news reporting agencies, where a common requirement of employment within journalism often requires a degree in the field or a close alternative. By supporting and giving the blog world validation as a real place to turn to for news it ultimately discredits any and everything a journalist does.
If any dude on the street with a little internet savvy can be up and posting, and ultimately reporting on emerging stories, what on earth are the “real” journalists for? I read the New York Times, Washington Post, Christian Science Monitor, The Nation, International Herald Times, United Press International, and a few others. Most of them I’d consider good sources of news stories, and usually report stories in a reasoned and well articulated way. I basically trust these sources, and the journalists that write what I read. I don’t trust a Blog entry that I find off Digg.
There is a value and commodity with trusting your news source. That trust is usually earned by having quality people understanding how to cultivate and create that trust, often those techniques are taught in a degree program, and generate careers. Just because someone can write on the interweb doesn’t mean that they should be a respected opinion on the interweb spaces.
I’m starting to stray into the dark and bitter realms of conservatism that attacks ideas that are not familiar or part of old traditions, I’m not trying to sink into a bitter rant without either rationality or balance, I’m laying out problems I see with the blind acceptance of blogging as credible. It’s true that a degree doesn’t make someone a stalwart of decent reporting, but neither does it immediately create a failure. Not everyone that has a blog, or even a blog with a following has anything to say.
Basically I’ll still take the word of Helen Thomas on presidential affairs over a blog that has over 1000 Diggs. Experience and education in my book still carry weight.
So, now, with that laid out why am I here blogging away?
Because I do think there’s a place for it all, and I don’t think it needs to be reduced. Blogs and online forums have developed into the greatest continual discussion of, well, everything ever. Why wouldn’t I want to be part of it? I have my grumpy old man moments from time to time. I don’t wholly get why blogs are given the credence that they are, I don’t get the distrust of print journalism, and I really really don’t get Myspace. But that’s me. I remember when my family upgraded our modem from a 14.4 to a 28.8. That, was an exciting day. When I’d get home from school in 7th grade I’d start trying to dial up to our service provider trying to get online (about a 5-10 min wait), and I’d talk with my friends on a local BBS. Anyone out there from the old “Good News BBS”? Yeah, used to hit that shit.
I’ve been online basically since there were graphical browsers. I’m not coding language savvy, I dig the gui interface pretty hard, without it I’d never would have become a computer user, but my knowledge isn’t deep, however I’ve been around since the earlier days of the 90s, I got on right when everything was indeed starting to explode. I don’t want to fall by the wayside now, and I can feel that slip and disconnect already with people that are currently coming out of High School that just don’t remember either what it was like before we lived “wireless”, or those periods of radical transition. I’m getting on board with Blogging because I will never become part of a generation that rejects what it doesn’t fully grasp.
It’s sad too. I probably should have been doing this blogging stuff earlier, but what the fuck, now I’ve got something to say. I didn’t have much a few years ago. To get back on track…I think that blogs shouldn’t carry the influence that they do, but I think they need to be part of the conversation. I also think that the blog world is becoming very insular, and starting to develop some disconnect with the less switched on majority.
…Yeah, I guess that’s what I’ve got to contribute to the conversation.
Good talking.
~C
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