You are what you blog

There are blogs and there are blogs - I would reluctantly agree with a least some of what John C Dvorak says in his online article 'The Blog Phenomenon' , in that there seem to be blogs for just about every conceivable subject you could possibly think of. If you would like a more erudite (yet still witty) narrative on the subject, I urge you to look at Margaret Simon's excellent article 'Towards a taxonomy of blogs'.

Whether serious or not, what both authors above have tried to do is classify the blog, and this is an interesting notion, approached academically or just for the sake of it. Simons gives the description 'pamphleteering' to the blog which has a cause to push - there are plenty of these around, and it's good to see - online democracy in action. But of course, as with any democracy, the problem is that everyone has a voice - so which one do you listen too?

Simon's article does get a little semantic - I will not do so here. Instead, I will endeavor to keep it simple. So besides the 'pamphleteering' kinds of blog (bloggers with a cause?) there is still a plethora of others.

As Dvorak suggests, the 'vanity' blog is writ quite large, and it is worth considering the reasons for this, rather than just scoffing and dismissing these out of hand. I would humbly posit a couple of reasons: firstly, I think that this growing phenomenon (much like social networking) is a manifestation of the cult of celebrity - everyone, it seems, wants their fifteen minutes. Secondly (as Dvorak alludes to) it is also a form of reaching out, of validating ourselves and our very existence. Let' face it, we've been doing this in some way, shape or form since the first person scratched something on a cave wall.

On a more serious note, there are those blogs which are primarily concerned with news and information - they are an interactive way in which we can stay informed about, well, nearly everything. And there, of course, is the rub - there is just so much out there, but such a dearth of quality and credibility. For an example of how citizen journalists may actually just be conspiracy theory nutters in disguise, just click right here.

On the lighter side, there are blogs for those who share a common interest or hobby - even hardbitten, cynical old me was amazed and occasionally shocked by what is out there in the blogosphere. A word of warning: when you are randomly searching for weird and obscure blogs, do NOT type in the word 'fetish' - you really don't want to see some of the more disturbing interests that some people share, trust me. However, if you are bored...An example of the more mundane, but nonetheless obscure blogs, are those which fixate on plastic airfix models  (you know: aeroplanes, ships etc.) - yes, really. (As somenone who used to enjoy this hobby as a kid, I was actually quite chuffed to find it.)

So it does indeed seem that there is a blog for everyone and everything - maybe that's not such a bad thing (except for the perverts, of course).

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