Reasons why blogging is dumb
Reasons why blogging is dumb
Subtitles are dumb too
Fall is almost upon us. The dry season for blogging, the summer, is nearly over. And it’s an election year. I’m sure bloggers and writers everywhere would like you to prepare your bodies and minds and inboxes for shattering insights, peak content, mental stimulation.
But, ah, before that happens, right now in this last spell of dryness, I’d like to talk about why most of that content is going to be dumb. Bad. Useless.
Hypocritical, I know. I’ve written many times before about the benefits of blogging, both why I do it but also why I think others should too. Advantages like speed and relevancy. Most importantly, freedom from a class of publishing gatekeepers who get it wrong more often than they get it right. Personally, I think this here is a good medium, all things considered.
But I’ll also be honest about it: despite much boosterism by its proponents (including myself) blogging is not a perfect medium. Its positives, of which there are many, do not mean its downsides don’t exist. There are temptations, pitfalls, and limitations, things many, even those with good reputations, would like to pretend don’t exist and probably wouldn’t like discussed, lest it reveal a bit too clearly their true shadow shapes.
Good.
Here are what I see as the biggest problems with blogging or writing a newsletter (of any kind), inevitable dirty secrets that aren’t talked about enough. Knowing them is useful—not just for writers, but for readers as well. For purposes of discernment, of course. Beginning with the unfortunate reality that…
Blogging leads to aesthetic degradation.
I used to think that internet writers all sounded the same because a minimalist style had crowded out other more interesting but also more fragile aesthetics. Like some sort of algae bloom of prose filling up websites. Now I realize that the most common sound you hear on the internet, if you lean close to the words, is the sound of someone typing quickly.