Drugi dom wrote an article about how blogs are nothing special and are just one of the (over)hyped things that circle the globe recently. He basically stuck blogs next to avian flu, ipod and Katie Holmes baby.
Jaka then wrote a follow-up, labeling me as a person who thinks that blogs are changing the world.
Both of the authors are wrong in my opinion.
The problem with this world of ours is that we are anxious for results. We want something to happen NOW! and we want to see it right after it happens. If it takes more than a couple of weeks or god forbids even months, then we are not interested and we move on. And we tend to neglect the small signs that are showing us progress. Development. Growth. In short…we are being unfair.
I will not quote the Technorati report, mostly because everybody knows it and cause it basically deals with the tehnical side of the blogosphere. The psycho-social side of the blogosphere is being neglected by the majority, mostly because they do not know how to observe these phenomenons and secondly because nobody gives a damn. And nobody gives a damn because nobody wants to deal with freaks and geeks that crawl around the internet, posting (vital) pieces of information on the web.
“It`s been done before” is the most common argument of the “opposition” who is quick to point out that people wrote diaries hundred of years ago, people made websites ten years ago and people participated in forums five years ago. So what if blogs put one and one together? It does not make them special.
I agree. Blogs are not special. In fact, blogs are the most boring thing on earth. Seriously, why bother pretending that blogs are a god-sent if we all know the truth? I think everybody is making the same mistake as ze amerikanz do and are analyings blogs through software. They are analysing the tool instead of focusing on the craftsman. On the person wielding the tool o`blog.
Right now, the blogosphere is still in phase 1. Observation. People are watching. Criticising and praising. We have not yet passed that phase and only a few of the observes are in fact manufacturers of the content as well. Will we ever move into the world where there will be more readers than writers? I hope so.
Will there or is there a blog revolution? Will this tool change everything and everybody at once? I do not think so. Will it affect the current situation? Most definitely. A revolution in a glass if you will. Because no matter what the sceptics say, people are doing it. Of their own free will. And in the world of infinitive choices and political passivity, THAT is a revolution all by itself.
As for web 2.0 – hah.
I’m a bit surprised to see you off the euphemistic position, which you had about blogs in the past. I definitely agree, it’s much too early to make anykind of relevant sociological conclusion about the blogs, or how they might influence us.
I’m also with the criticism which claims that it have been some aspects here before (personal hopepages, forums). But one also has to comprehend how blogs technically & formally go beyond these classic concepts.
What we’ll have in the future is even more divergence between the blog genrens itself, I think. There will be communities which will adopt either the journalistic textbased content, or the photoblog community (which already has reached a high level of popularity) or others.
In general we won’t see anything that hasn’t been here before, but the packaging, possible ways of direct interaction & especially instant providing will break the boundaries of traditional electronic publishing.