I wrote the following editorial in 2007, when I was an editor at McMaster University's arts & entertainment magazine, Andy. It seemed fitting to dig this up and post it...
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The internet has changed life as we know it. Everything is so much more accessible than it used to be, from finding new music, to meeting new people, to buying virtually anything you want from anywhere you want.
In a way, the Internet is at the forefront of globalization, as it seems to be making our world smaller and smaller (at least for those who are privileged enough to have it). But apart from how the internet is changing our global context, it is changing the way in which we seek information. In the past few years, blogs have started to consume our souls.
Perhaps most noticeable in the young adult age demographic, it seems like everyone I know has a blog, or at least wants to start one but doesn’t want to be following what has become an online trend. To keep in line with my previous editorials, I usually need to be ranting or complaining about something, so here are some of my favourite reasons to hate your blog. First reason—it makes anyone an expert, and if you have read anything by Theodore Roszak, you will understand why the term “expert” makes me feel completely unsettled. Blogs are entirely unregulated, and just because you claim to be the “King of Vinyl” doesn’t mean you know shit about the value or importance of records.
Even worse are the gossip bloggers, who strangely enough want to be experts about things that have absolutely no relevance to your life. Do you really care if Lindsay Lohan is a lesbian? I hope not, but even if you do, are you really going to trust what someone who has never even met her has to say. I just feel that so many blogs reek of desperation and loneliness.
Second reason that blogs suck is that it is entirely killing off the pen to paper means of writing. Remember when you had a real journal, and not a “live” one? I still own my Barbie diary, fully equipped with a padlock and key, and I only wish I still had the time and care to update a journal where I could physically write down my thoughts. To many people, an online journal is more convienant—especially if you are at a computer quite often, but I think that it is beneficial to take your eyes away from the glowing light of your screen after eight hours of being glued to it. Oh, and just so I cover all my bases, if you’re concerned about the “waste” of paper, then go ahead and buy a journal made of recycled paper.
The next gripe I hold is when people use their blogs as shameless self promotion. Your blog should not be your “company” website, because like I mentioned before, blogs can not be taken as credible sites. It’s one thing if you use your blog for fun or to show your friends something funny, but please stop plugging your URL every chance you get. If you are really writing a blog for yourself, then should you really care how many people are lurking it? It’s bad enough having Facebook and Myspace as personal advertisements of the self you want to portray, so do we really need another site that is doing the exact same thing?
Lastly, blogs suck because I can’t escape them. I hate them because by the default of simply having one too, I am adhering to all the things that I just said I hated. The more people who get them, the more I wonder why we are all so gravitated towards them. Somehow, I feel like everyone wants to be famous for something. Whether or not we admit it, everyone wants people to know their name.
If you strip down everything about a personal blog, then isn’t it just another way of letting people get to know you? Maybe we are all just trying to convince ourselves that we know who we really are.
Sarah El-Hamzawi
