Blogging: What is behind it?

...A friend of mine keeps bugging me to get a blog. I've been on the Internet since the beginning, but I haven't had any interest in getting a blog until only just recently.

I looked at the list of popular ATS bloggers and saw that Zeddicus was one of the most popular ones and I read his first page. One of his links led me to a site called Blogpulse where I found this list, which I captured and converted to greyscale for size considerations:



...Now, forgive me for sounding blunt, but if this is what people are talking about on blogs, then I do not want to be a part of that community.

You see, I want Michael Jackson and Brittney Spears to disappear off the world's collective consciousness, so if I get a blog, am I not then validating the process of 'blogging' and therefore also this list of subjects? These are the names bloggers mention most, according to this website.

Blogs are fun, but why does this list look the way it does? If 50,000 new blogs come online each day (according to the site above), why are they all mentioning such trivial, media-promoted people? Don't we have enough promotion of these names?

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Hey wow, I can edit this post just like a blog...

I noticed that Hellen Keller, Jimmy Carter and others are interesting people so maybe I'm being too harsh. There really are some large holes in this picture though, don't you think?

Regardless, ATS blogs are superior in many ways, so get one today! Make this list look better!


[edit on 9-6-2005 by smallpeeps]

I find myself hard pressed to dispute your position.

Most of the names have no particular importance to me.

The first time I watched Brittany Spears ...I immediately picked up the remote and changed channels.

Thanks,
Orangetom

Well, you just made a post which contained Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.

It's a vicious cycle, man.

I've thankfully never mentioned "him" or "her" in any of my blogs.

And I'll be darned if I'm going to start now

Don't give up hope. Many bloggers focus on current events, politics, personal anecdotes and the like; not everyone is blogging to keep up with People magazine....

Personally, mine tend to be about my childhood, my mess-ups, my mistakes, my thoughts on random things. There'll be the occasional medical/pharmaceutical piece, and perhaps a bit on religion.

But never, ever any blonde bimbette Mickey Mouse Club alumni, or surgically-enhanced (enhanced? who am I kidding?!) accused child-molestors.

Well, you just made a post which contained Michael Jackson and Britney Spears.

Oh man, you got me.

Yeah, if this list were compiled from ATS blogs alone, it'd look totally different. Still, one can't deny that 'blogging' effectively takes your ideas and places them in a very isolated environment. Friends of mine that have blogs type on them a lot but only their few friends ever read what is written. I try to encourage those folks to post more openly on forums like ATS so that their ideas and thoughts can be criticised and discussed by a larger crowd.

Personally, mine tend to be about my childhood, my mess-ups, my mistakes, my thoughts on random things. There'll be the occasional medical/pharmaceutical piece, and perhaps a bit on religion.

Yes, that's cool. Blogs seem like a good place to talk about daily life or daily thoughts. That's what I think I'll use mine for when I get around to getting one.

Clearly the combination of a blog AND regular ATS posting is the ultimate solution.

I was also thinking that perhaps this Blogpulse site is a tool of media forces and so their spiders only search certain sites so as to produce the desired results.

As a member of the (ducks under table) mainstream media, I'd havta say, blogs are the direct result of a media completely out of touch with real people and beholden to corporate interests.

If the mainstream media pulled its collective head outta its ass and became the watchdog entity it should be, interest and participation in the blogosphere would diminish somewhat.

Until and unless that happens, blogs will flourish. People are hungry for TRUTH.

Bumping one of my threads. I think I made some good points about how all blogs do, is pay stupid people, to talk about stupid stuff.

UPDATE: Blogs still suck.

UPDATE: Forums haven't gotten any better.