Seriously now… blogs are little more than personal home pages with built-in text editors.
People put up web pages for a number of reasons, but it’s really all about a real or perceived notion that what they have to say is interesting to other people. Blogs are all the rage now because they’ve cut through the painful overhead of setting up and maintaining a web page. Here’s what I say, they’re nothing new, just a better implementation.
Bill Gates is now going to get a blog. Doesn’t he already have one right here? Sure… it doesn’t look like a blog, but it serves the same function. So, if Bill Gates already has a web page that provides a forum for his views and news what is he really getting?
Perhaps it’s not that simple. Our society is continuing to evolve from a formal to informal society. We don’t wear ties to work anymore. We don’t like our neighbor’s kids to call us “Mr. This” or “Mrs. That”. We prefer instant messaging over e-mail. Are blogs just an extension of that formal to casual transition our culture is making?
A formal home page is cold and corporate. It has pretty graphics and structured layout. A blog tends to have fewer static pictures and the content, while structured, tends to be shorter and come in fits and bursts (My posts range from a couple lines to long boring rants no one reads… are you still here?).
So what do you think? Are blogs really something new?
2 replies on “Are Blogs really “all that”?”
I think it’s all that because:
1. interested people come to you, you don’t have to compose an email and decide who to send the email to. I’m thinking friends and family here. Any other readers on my blog is a bonus. But I’m really writing to the people in my life that, for whatever reason, are interested in me.
2. if you do happen to write something interesting to other people, word gets around. Then lots of people come to your site. This is because of the whole "really simple sydication" aspect. Everything is interminged. When you do get a spike in readership like that, it’s fun!
3. it’s an easy way to publish information about yourself. A few years ago this was a royal pain in the ass. You’d better know your way around HTML!
4. there are tools to aggregate the content you’re interested in. You don’t have to surf around to visit all the sites you’re interested in, it can get pulled down in one app for you. Saves me time. Keeps me in touch with friends, the news, whatever.
5. it’s a record for you the author to look back on. This is partly why I do it. I frequently go back to something I’ve written for reference. This is especially true for tech posts. I have a terrible memory… 🙂
6. I’ll probably think of more reasons later.
I admit, when I first started blogging, I felt a little self conscious about writing my blog. It felt futile and self indulgent. Who cares what I had to say? But then I realized I enjoy reading my friends blogs, no matter what the content, so I got over it. 🙂 Why shouldn’t they read mine in the same spirit as I read there’s? I also enjoy the writing itself (I’m proably a bit a-typical there though).
So there!
-Mike
I like your definition "just a better implementation" i’d never thought of it like that before, but I suppose you’re right, that is I agree – no they’re not new 🙂