The Amazing Paper Weblog

I have to say, although it will probably make me look ignorant, I had no idea how big the blogging community was. The only blog i had ever really seen was pinkisthenewblog.com which is a blog stalking celebrities and dishing all the juicy gossip that i saw girls in my high school obsessing over. I had definitely never heard the term "blogging community". I know I know, and I'm a writer. I guess I can use the excuse that I'm a freshman and certainly none of the people at my snooty private high school in nashville were a part of such a thing. After realizing the truth about the popularity of blogging, I've been even more confused as to what the fascination is. (no offense to other bloggers, i think this is mostly because I have a very short attention span). The conclusion that I have come to is that it is an interactive way to promote yourself and others, and share ideas. So what then, is the benefit of having a "paper weblog"?

Although I'm clueless when it comes to the world of blogging, it makes me feel a little better that people who have been blogging for years have the same confusion. Pollack says "it's just so damn meaningless that it makes my teeth hurt." Hourihan says, "I just kept feeling like, 'I don't even think this stuff is important in the real world.'"

I actually find it kind of amusing that there is such competition between bloggers like Krucoff and Lockhart. Bashing each other back and forth via websites seems like a pretty safe way for a little man to talk a big game.

Spiers believes that "the blog as a shiny new thing, separate and apart from the rest of the media, is dead." I'm not sure how I feel about this statement. Has blogging become so mainstream from the media that it lacks what spiers calls the "other"-ness? Maybe so. Will it continue to grow because of this and simply attract more attention? Maybe so. I'm willing to bet that for every blogger who gets tired of it, and suddenly fails to see the point, there is another blogger in the making.