S has started reading blogs. This is big because he has spent a significant amount of time over the last few years mocking me for my blog addictions. Of course, a significant amount of that mockery occurs as he stands reading over my shoulder, but he would vehemently assert that that doesn’t count.
Anyways, he is into the traditional kind of blogs, the web logs, not the journals, the ones that tip you off to cool links and sites. He’s particularly partial to Waxy, and he was thrilled to discover Boing Boing (and the infamous mashup of 40 Beatles songs), though he was a bit deflated when I responded to news of his discovery with “Of course I know about Boing Boing. I do read a lot of blogs, you know.”
If you’re down with blog history, you know that blogs began as collections of links (like this), occasionally held together with narrative, and that online diaries and journals (like this) were a separate entity altogether. Then Blogger came along, followed by Movable Type, and it became a lot easier to keep your online journal using somebody else’s template and site, instead of writing tons of code yourself. Today blogs are generally thought of as journals that include links, though the link-centered model that S prefers still has a significant presence. (Obviously that’s a super-abridged history: here’s Rebecca Blood’s links-focused version that takes us up to 2000, while this recent article from ABC News demonstrates the current dominance of the journal model.)
But here’s my big question about those link-centered blogs: where do they find the time? S says they’re all geeks, which means they spend a lot of time online and stay up really late. OK, I’ll buy that, but I spend a lot of time online and stay up really late too. And I’m barely managing to write a few paragraphs a day with extremely pedestrian links; forget surfing the obscure corners of the internet for long lists of exciting links you’ve never seen before. Who pays their bills? Who reads six Arthur books in a row to their children? Who stares at the wall for hours at a time at their houses? And, speaking of time, who the hell has time to do this?
4 comments:
the kind of person who would do this this is the kind of person who doesn't have the time to blog every day because they spend more time out having adventures rather than sitting in front of the computer.
monkey
Actually, monkey, my comment was one of awe, not scorn. We (that would be my whole family, not the royal we) love your site; we're just boggled by it.
I'm increasingly interested in the differences between blogs, be it personal or link-strewn or business or photography or political, etc., and how drawn different people are to different ones....
I know I would never have time or interest to just post hundreds of links to cool things I've found (although with blogrolling that has become much easier) nor do I want to clutter my blog with such randomness. I usually link to things I genuinely find interest in, or that I have SOME sort of personal connection to. I like "journals" that have a sarcastic, edgy mockery of a person's everyday life. Many of my friends have interest in political blogs, but I find it hard to stay interested in those. But the "Next blog..." button is everybody's friend! :-)
oh! i apologize, my comment must have sounded a bit more smarty-pants than i had intended. i don't have the discipline to plop myself in front of the computer daily to blog. i tend head toward the computer, circle it then head off on a tangent. i seem to only settle there after i have been coated with pastry cream, or grimy with the dust of the road and facing a virtual stack of photos that glower at me until i do something with them. of course, my site was not built in a day, it has evolved over time. i am so happy that you and your family enjoy my little edge of the web. drop by anytime.. fix a snack.. you can even put your feet up on my furniture!
monkey
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