“And can you, can you imagine fifty people a day,I said
fifty people a day walking in singin a bar of Alice’s Restaurant and
walking out. And friends they may thinks it’s a movement.

And that’s what it is , the Alice’s Restaurant Anti-Massacre Movement, and
all you got to do to join is sing it the next time it come’s around on the
guitar.”

A girl said to me (and let’s call her Squid Girl, because why not call her that?), the other day, she said:

“I find the blog phenomena really interesting (…) Tell me why you do it.”

And I said to myself (yeah, of course, because when ever I get to use this line), “Self,” I said…

It got me thinking though.

My flip answer was that I think blogging is stupid. And honestly, I sort of do think that. Most people have nothing to say. God knows don’t think I have anything much to say in a journal. That’s why I’ve never kept one apart from a few attempts while traveling.

So why do it?

First, let’s clarify. I don’t think all bloggers are wasting time. I can think of a good few people out there who really have something to say, who write well, or who are just doing something entertaining. They are, in effect, columnists. Like Dave Barry or Carl Hiaasen or Herb Caen or Jon Carrol or – insert your favorite. They just muse; that’s what these people do. They think about things, in writing. And if the writing is good, sometimes it doesn’t really matter what the thoughts are.

The problem is that blogging has turned into a “Phenomenon“. A – to quote old Arlo up there, a “Movement“. Which means simply that everyone is doing it.

And frankly, like 40 year old women dressed like toddlers, like men who wear sans-a-belt slacks, like people who think that clothes fit just because you can get into them; like all those people, some just shouldn’t.

I’m one to talk, right?

The thing is, I don’t have my shit up on clix. I don’t have it on livejournal (well, ok, there’s a link there, I keep forgetting). I don’t publicize it or tell people to go to it, and I’m honestly a little shocked when someone says “I read your blog”. I do this stuff for myself only.

Why do people read these things? I don’t know. Is it like reality TV? Is that what blogs are? We wanna take a voyeuristic peek into some else’s life so we can scoff (*scoff*scoff*), so we can empathize, so we can say, “There, but for the grace of {insert deity of choice here} go I“?

Why else?

Of course people who blog about sex, that’s obvious. You might read something dirty and get a little thrill (and that’s what disapproval is, a thrill), without stooping so low and to read dreaded pornography. So let’s set that one aside.

So what is it? We’re not all really that interesting, us humans. Most of us are so mind-numbingly boring that it’s a wonder we can go through the day.

But people have to be reading. Or else there would not be so many sites dedicated to blogging, so many tools, so many orkut groups. So many services that can actually *charge* people to host a blog. If no one is reading, what’s the point in all this?

So why do I do it?

Why the fuck not, right?

Honestly, that’s how much sense it makes.

This all started as geek curiosity. I wanted to see how Movable Type worked. Was curious about the interface and the tools behind it. So when I moved my web page to a new server and was offered a blog, I said – yeah, sure, but I won’t do much with it.

And I didn’t for a couple months. Fiddled with it. drove it around, kicked the tires. And then I got bored and decided to write an entry.

And you know what? That was kind of fun.

After that, I said to myself (wait for it…), I said, why not try using this as a writing project, keep the chops up, maybe it will help me get back to writing the fiction I want to write. If not, at least it’s a good exercise in writing essays.

So I started doing it. At first to muse about writing itself, but you know how I get distracted. So then it was just for the hell of it, if I had an idea I wanted to write about, or just because I felt like writing.

But people found it. Not that I was hiding or anything, I actually was sending out notices about updates for a while. But people I never told accidentally tripped and fell in. Which was a shock to me.

So what is it with the “blog phenomenon” (I want reverb on that)? When’s it going away? How many of it’s fifteen minutes are up?

All I know is, when I first heard about it (from my friend Mickey Sattler, whom I know from the Utilikilts mailing list), I was derisive and dismissive. And yet now, I have a growing list of blogs I try to keep up with. And to my amazement, I’m doing this.

And still have no idea why.

So ObOrkut commentary.

I swear to god it’s a drug. When you have it you want more, when you are jailed and can’t get it, you need it like a spike in your skinny white junkie arm.

More. And more. More friends. More groups.

But you know what? I’m actually making real friends there. That’s the shocker. Because that’s sort of what it was made for. And even though we’re all out to twist and pervert and use the system, I’m finding – hell, I like some of these people. Some of ’em I’d very much like to actually hand out with.

Alas, most in faraway places like chicago or australia conecticut or brazil or canada. Or maybe not alas in some of these cases to save me some – ah – trouble. But still. I’ve met some bitchin’ folk.

It’s funny though. How quickly the place is developing a culture. It’s been around only a few weeks and already there’s cultural ebb and flow, there are celebrities and villains. There are laser beams in people’s eyes.

It’s nutty. In some ways it’s akin to the glory (hole) days of usenet, only in extreme fast forward. Like it’s going through the development and propagation; any day now we’ll have the equivalent of when AOL hit usenet, and the slide into stupidity will begin. I’m counting the days or weeks that is stays so giddily entertaining, it can’t last. But for now it’s as much fun as I’ve had on the net in quite a number of years.

Not only that, but I get to write like a hillbilly in phonetic broken english. How often do you get a whole bunch of people all doing that?

Read more “You can get anything you want”