Blogging Culture and Commercialism....

Lately, there have been several posts floating around about blogs and the implications of making them commercial. I read Mad's series on this topic and found it very good and thorough. I agreed with some of her points and disagreed with others. Some strongly. Today, Julie has written about it. Please read hers as well as this one because my comments are a branch from that tree. This started as a comment on her blog and got too long.

The various points have been weighed by those far smarter and more savvy than me, but nevertheless I found that my reaction to them was visceral, almost to the point of wanting to shout "absolutely not!" Do not commercialize these forums! I don't care how you try to rationalize it. Do. Not. Do. It.!!

Technically, these blogs are simply a more individualized version of the old bulletin boards. We went from Delphi-style bulletin boards to Yahoo-style mailing lists to blogs.They use a more sophisticated tool but it is essentially the same objective that keeps them going. It's a way to be heard. It's a way to learn new ideas. It's a way to communicate.

It has only been very few times I took a look at some of the "popular" sites and was turned off by both the content and the NASCAR appearance of their sites. The pages took forever to load in because they were cluttered with ads and self-promotion of one type or another. I was turned off and did not return.

I can't tell you in mere words how utterly put off I am by the world of commerce and the mentality that comes along with it. The pandering, the promotion of products or individuals, the "popularity" aspect of it. Blecht. My life is too short and my time is too valuable to waste it on something like that. Just recently, I stopped reading someone's blog because it became too focused on the commercial potential of his writing. And make no mistake.. I thoroughly loved that blog! I was very disappointed when it went in that direction ~ but after three or four weeks of visiting, only to read about which cell phone to buy or whether or not that individual would be able to make money, ostensibly off of my visits, I had to bite the bullet and say "so long".

The best thing about blogs is the free-wheeling, outspoken nature of them. It's the Wild, Wild West of ideas. Everyone writes what he or she chooses to write about and invites others to comment or not comment, include themselves in the conversation or not. Very few are niche writers. Even the so-called "mommy bloggers" are quite diverse in all respects and while they write about raising their children, there are much broader issues being addressed at the same time. The "Social Justice Roundtable" posts are an example. While they may have been spawned out of concern for the future of children, they also provide an excellent resource for knowing what people are thinking about, what they perceive as being critical social problems to be solved and they give us a Cliff Notes view to follow up on or not follow up, again by choice.

Blogging is a roundtable, closest to the traditional concept as is humanly possible in the rather dry and mechanical universe of the Internet. We use our words to put color between the lines. These forums are accessible to nearly everyone. Internet access is not off the table for a good portion of the population in many parts of the world. Even the homeless can get access in the library. This requires no privilege. I live on a fixed income that is less than the "privileged" spend at Starbuck's in a two- or-three-month period. My computer is an older model that was given to me by the girlfriend of a friend when she upgraded. If it dies, I'll get up on Craigslist and buy another for a few hundred dollars. While I do have high-speed access, the cost is split between three people. Mine is far from a voice of "privilege".

Blogs can be a way to find likeminded others. Sure. If I wanted to go niche, I could probably draw other short, pudgy, middle-aged eccentrics who plan to move to Southeast Asia. All the short, pudgy, middle-aged eccentrics who plan to move to Southeast Asia would have a little community. We could share our plans and give each other ideas on how to make the move smoother. We could wax poetic about our chosen homelands and be as happy as the proverbial pigs in mud.

And it would become one-dimensional and boring as hell because there is only just so much that can be said around the central thought of "I'm a short, pudgy, middle-aged eccentric and I plan to move to Southeast Asia." The community would last six months or so. Like specialized, topical Yahoo lists, there would be a flurry of activity and would eventually end up with diminishing traffic because it would become just as interesting as watching paint dry. It's too insular.

Sticking a toe into the pool of commercialism might feel good initially but it's soon discovered that the pool is actually quicksand. The world of commercialism has no room for diversity ~ or freedom of speech ~ or any of those other things we consider to be the core and lifeblood of blogging.

Having worked for a newspaper, I know how writing can ultimately work its way back to "the bottom line". My words were to be strung together for a certain purpose. That purpose was to sell newspapers. I had to be sufficiently controversial and sufficiently tapped into whatever "everyone" was talking about or I'd get a verbal swat on the wrist from the editor. That meant week after week of writing about the same topics whether they interested me or not. I had to watch the daily news, keep track of the "big topics" on talk radio. I had to write cutesy pieces about Hallmark holidays. I had to write the occasional human interest column, designed to appeal to the emotions of the readers, usually to encourage monetary participation in someone's cause or influence their political thinking in the face of some upcoming election. I wrote so much pop-culture dreck that I should have been on a daily dose of insulin. I was a glorified propagandist.

Speaking only for me, I will never sell my soul like that again.

And I don't want to spend my on-line time with anyone who would choose to sell theirs. I'm too old and tired to be bothered with popularity contests (which commercial sites ultimately become) and I am not interested in feathering anyone else's nest with my time and energy unless it is by explicit agreement.

So ~ when it comes to the commercialization and commodification of blogs, I am firmly in the "absolutely not" camp.


Peace,


~Chani