Feb | 18 | 2008

Bloggers Don’t Really Write Much At All?

Posted by Jimmy as Blog Tutorials News, Opinion, Writing

While going about my daily Internet browsing, I stumbled upon a blog called Writing for the Web. Of course, it caught my attention as that is exactly what I am doing. The latest entry had me flying across the Web, though, in search of the original article that the blogger was talking about. Even right now, I am feeling a mixture of emotions, after reading through the article.

So what is this all about? Sarah Boxer writes about being given a “dreadful” idea for a book – that was, to create an anthology of blogs. In her article, she explains what a blog is and describes its nature:

Reading blogs, it’s pretty clear, is not like reading a newspaper article or a book. Blog readers jump around. They follow links. They move from blogs to news clips to videos on YouTube, and they do it more easily than you can turn a newspaper page. They are always getting carried away—somewhere. Bloggers thrive on fragmented attention and dole it out too—one-liners, samples of songs, summary news, and summary judgments. Sometimes they don’t even stop to punctuate. And if they can’t put quite the right inflection on a sentence, they’ll often use an OMG (Oh my god!) or an emoticon, e.g., a smiley face or a wink or a frown instead of words. (Tilt your head to the left to see the emoticons here.)

Alright, there is some truth to that, I agree. However, this line just really got me:

Many bloggers really don’t write much at all. They are more like impresarios, curators, or editors, picking and choosing things they find on line, occasionally slapping on a funny headline or adding a snarky (read: snotty and catty) comment. Some days, the only original writing you see on a blog is the equivalent of “Read this…. Take a look…. But, seriously, this is lame…. Can you believe this?”

Again, there is a grain of truth here and I believe that working on our writing is the only way to prove this statement wrong. It is such a sweeping statement that does not do us – bloggers – any justice. I could go on and on about this but I think I’ll just go about my business and go on writing fantastic blog entries that are nothing like what is described in the article. What say you?

One Response

Fausto Ponce
19|Feb|2008

Funny, I read that articule too (it’s was published in spanish, in a mexican newspaper), and gave the same feeling. I think it has some interesting ideas, but I think it’s the look of an outsider who doesn’t quite understand the bloggin bussines: blogs can be a powerful tool for writers and other people who wants and have to say something, ok, some blogs don’t say anything, but there is a lot of interesting stuff too.

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