Blogs, (particularly Lj And Xanga)
<div class="IPBDescription">Stigma against them?</div> This may follow the same arguement as anime, but is there a general hatred/extreme apathy to blogs? I've been noticing a lot of instances where blogs, (a lot directed towards Xanga and LiveJournal) get ripped apart. A girl on was had the Awful Link of the Day spotlight her, and the squadristi of SA flocked in an attempt to rip up her site. Heck, there's even a <a href='http://ljdrama.org/' target='_blank'>site dedicated to slamming LJs</a>.
I'm curious, is this disdain simply people having enough with useless clutter filling the Internet? Does it seem like teen angst/"OMG, I hAd br3kF4St f0r 0nc3 2d4y, l0l!!!1111" sites have run amok, with netizens finally saying, "Enough is enough!"? The more militant even try to rid this problem through a massive crusade to destroy the clutter by personal attacks to hopefully force the user to stop posting about his/her life, unless he/she wants MORE ridicule.
Why did I compare this to anime? My hypothesis is just like blogs, there is high quailty anime, and low quailty ones as well. North America seems to be famous for attracting low grade anime on the network channels, leading to a sterotyping of anime, and a passionate hatred by the anime illiterate in thinking that "PokeyMan sucks! Therefore, ALL anime sucks!". (Actually, I guess the same goes for any hatred sparked by a sterotype). I guess those of you anti-blogs are like this as well? Dealt with enough useless blogs about inane ramblings of God knows who, that you're never going to look at anything blog related, (except perhaps those of your friends). Or does the whole idea of blogs annoy you anyways, regardless of whether the material is interesting or not? (i.e., Why the hell do I care about other people's opinions? I HAVE MY OWN!)
Just wondering... and yeah, I fit the sterotype well, SO DON'T VISIT MY XANGA!
I'm curious, is this disdain simply people having enough with useless clutter filling the Internet? Does it seem like teen angst/"OMG, I hAd br3kF4St f0r 0nc3 2d4y, l0l!!!1111" sites have run amok, with netizens finally saying, "Enough is enough!"? The more militant even try to rid this problem through a massive crusade to destroy the clutter by personal attacks to hopefully force the user to stop posting about his/her life, unless he/she wants MORE ridicule.
Why did I compare this to anime? My hypothesis is just like blogs, there is high quailty anime, and low quailty ones as well. North America seems to be famous for attracting low grade anime on the network channels, leading to a sterotyping of anime, and a passionate hatred by the anime illiterate in thinking that "PokeyMan sucks! Therefore, ALL anime sucks!". (Actually, I guess the same goes for any hatred sparked by a sterotype). I guess those of you anti-blogs are like this as well? Dealt with enough useless blogs about inane ramblings of God knows who, that you're never going to look at anything blog related, (except perhaps those of your friends). Or does the whole idea of blogs annoy you anyways, regardless of whether the material is interesting or not? (i.e., Why the hell do I care about other people's opinions? I HAVE MY OWN!)
Just wondering... and yeah, I fit the sterotype well, SO DON'T VISIT MY XANGA!
Comments
when it gets taken from your mind and put onto paper/computer it somehow becomes more real
course, i dont have a weblog, so i wouldnt know.... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo-->
when it gets taken from your mind and put onto paper/computer it somehow becomes more real
course, i dont have a weblog, so i wouldnt know.... <!--emo&???--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/confused.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='confused.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
wow, that's actually incredibly wise :>
I always kinda scoffed at blogs because I wonder why people think their days are important or interesting enough to broadcast to the whole internet world... if you want to share how your day went with friends, use the phone, or instant messages... if people don't care enough to ask you about your life in person, having a blog is just nurturing an illusion that people will care if it's on the internet...
of course I'm just old fashioned, and a devil's advocate =P
Therefore, I don't read them. And that's usually enough. But what I hate is when I'm Googling for something and all I get are people's blogs. I don't <i>want</i> to read this drivel, and I wish there was some way to exclude it.
As has already been stated in this thread, it's not the case that you want people to know who you had breakfast with, it's about getting it out. A weblog is like a personal diary, but public. Nothing more. Not every blog is actually full of angst y'know, and there's a lot of good writers out there who make great reading and write a lot of funny stuff.
The stigma against us bloggers, however, comes from two things. One thing is the needless amount of pimping a lot of people do. The second is that with a <b>lot</b> (Read: not all) of blogs the same thing is posted time and time again on every single blog, this is even more rife on Live Journal than personal blogs however.
I find it interesting to read about other people's lives, yes maybe i am a bit of a voyeur, you'd be surprised what a lot of people do and think. I guess it's like reality tv, but uncut and a hell of a lot funnier.
Ontop of the amount that is well written, a lot of them display extremely good graphic design skills (which as a lot of you will know really interests me), i've seen some mind blowing stuff done for free by unemployed amateurs (Where are you mary?). I guess the whole experience is an arty-farty kinda thing.
So in closing, don't hate us, if you don't like our sites or opinions, don't read them.
*EDIT: Also, bloggers tend to be a bit more arrogant or pretentious towards Live Journal. This is because we pay for our webhosting, we design it ourselves and spend 10 times as long on the site as a whole than they do. Also since Live Journal is totally free and open and it's no hardship getting an account (There's whole communities dedicated to giving free LJ keys), so you get a lot of people who just put those good people out there to shame.
Far better is my friend devojenkins' journal, which IS introspective, but he's using it as an outlet to cope with a disease: <a href='http://www.deadjournal.com/~devojenkins' target='_blank'>http://www.deadjournal.com/~devojenkins</a>
I do believe that people have every right to voice their opinions, it's just up to you not to either read them or listen to them. Simple as that.
I guess some of us aren't somethingawful.com readers...
I do believe that people have every right to voice their opinions, it's just up to you not to either read them or listen to them. Simple as that. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Is that an argument or agreeance I cant tell...:/
At any rate the site "dissing" them is totally satire so now Idk how to feel exactly, lol.
OMG!
<a href='http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=SeinZaru' target='_blank'>http://www.xanga.com/home.aspx?user=SeinZaru</a>
OMG! <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Umm... I think they were just inspired by a previous Awful Link of the day about 2 days ago, their front page is just a joke, hence the title "Fake SA" <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Well, you might hear the admin / moderators complaining since that site contains lots of nudity.
That said, this is most likely the opinion of people that leave comments, make fun of blogs, etc:
*Ahem*
Why do I care? Here I am surfing the net and I stumble into someone's cliche little unoriginal, hideous little blog. Usually with the title: 'My outlet to the world...' or maybe the more enlightining title of 'Windows to the soul'. What's next is I'm cascaded with what I could care less about: How depressed you are and how much you want to die. I don't care. No one does. No one wants to read your blog. In fact, those that do most likely do it for a cheap laugh.
Furthermore, you put your cheap, lousy thoughts on the web like a public Jerry Springer show. Why do you deserve to NOT be laughed at?
*fin*
she
is a dolt.
<!--QuoteBegin--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> neways went to nadine's house... huNg out for a lil while, called home, and my sis came to pick me uP =] but eRGH i tink we're on the same electricity main thingy as aHs so yeah our power was out for most of tha day.. but it's okay i guess.. loLs but i've realized i love electriCity and cars =) =) =) they are soooo awesOme hehe<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
THAT is the blog stereotype.
edit: super formatting errorz.
I'm sure if an interesting person who wrote theirs intelligently referred me to their blog, I'd read it.
The severe lack of people fitting that description on the internet is what keeps me from reading blogs. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
However, one really good blog I like reading is www.insignificantthoughts.com
Fun to read, fun to comment.
However, one really good blog I like reading is www.insignificantthoughts.com
Fun to read, fun to comment. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Warning, warning, Conservatism detector nearing dangerous levels!
You can apply this basic formula to anything in life. Most of it is stupid, some is interesting. If you're going to focus on something, focus on the interesting. Or at least take both into account. Negative generalizations don't make anyone happy. So stop using them.
You guys might want to check out Confuzor's blog, it's interesting.
This is mainly b/c LJ is just very popular on campus here (http://www.livejournal.com/community/oberlin/)
You will see that alot of it is ussed as a message board for posting up events on campus, asking people in the comunity random stuff etc <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Again, its often ussed for those people who have alot of friends
having TIME to actualy talk to people (online/rl/phone) is kinda rare (conflicting scheduals etc), so you know what your friends are up to. Who's gona do what this friday (aka whos doing something you wana do also <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->), or so you know when something bad/good/interesting has gone down (despite not having gotten to see said person for a few days <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->).
So yah, I think it is an ok Idea, however I personaly have no interest in them (thus I don't use it, fin and fin)
Also if you are in a mood to find more reasons why humanity sucks you can always go a troll the stupid comunities, but again not my thing (I don't read SA, nuff said)
Yeah yeah... that's why I like it.
Do you know that this forum resembles a collaborate blog? It does not matter whether it's called a "forum" or a "LJ", the function is the same. One or more people can write to share thoughts and ideas, be it NS related or related to your own personal life.
These blogs have two goals:
1) Sharing of ideas and experience. People write what they think, and other people read it. It could be on what they thought of the latest LotR movie, or what they had for breakfast. It could be a simple "life sucks" statement, or it could be a long analyzis on personal relations and why it fails. It can be a comment to the latest research in quantum mechanics, or it can be a simple "Jesus loves you all!". No matter what, it is still ideas, thoughts if you will. This is communication, and the reason to why humans have come so far in technology, science and ideas the last thousand years.
2) It is thinking and forming ideas for yourself. It's talking to yourself. It's venting out. It's writing your current thoughts to a <i>possible reader</i>, a form of writing that is very productive and makes for easy reading for yourself later. If you look back in your blog, you will probably be able to get exactly what you were thinking that time even if you thought you'd forgotten completely, because you wrote it for a possible reader. This is how it is different from a personal closed diary. Also, writing makes you think and often re-think your opinions and ideas, or just helps you organise them.
"writing to me is simply thinking through my fingers." - Isaac Asimov
Now, for all of you that believes blogs are just for teenangsters (love that word), re-visit the world of blogging. It is not a one-faced world for one community. It's a phenomena for multiple communities and individuals. The only thing that ties these blogs together is the wish to communicate, form their thoughts and/or just write. Just like this NS forum ...