[Previous entry: "Geek Test"] [Main Index] [Next entry: "Preterism again"]
05/28/2003 Archived Entry: "Fred Peatross on blogging"
Fred Peatross, at FutureMargins.com, has what I see as a rather pessimistic piece about blogging. He enumerates four reasons why people blog:
I'm sure I have gotten off track many, many times in the almost-a-year I have been blogging, but I am hoping to encourage Christians in their walk. There are lots of forces aligned against the Christian; I want to line up alongside them.
For me, there is very little ego gratification in blogging. Any idiot can do it and every idiot knows that. I've never known anyone to act surprised or impressed--even a little bit--that I have my own website.
As far as antidepersonalization goes, we all are doing that in everything we do. No one wants to be depersonalized. I guess if that were my main goal in blogging I would be much more controversial and try to draw attention to myself.
Need to share? Yeah, but I'm not prone to verbal diarrhea. I'll share if people want to hear what I have to say, but I don't force myself. There are lots of ways to share more publicly than on a website that maybe 40 people a day look at.
Wanna-be writer? Nah. This sounds like the condescending drivel of a published writer. Peatross is a published writer. From the high place erected by the "real" writer, our little hobby sites probably look cheap and easy. But I would submit that this is simply a coping mechanism for a writer who has not yet adjusted to this new medium, which is not so much a medium as it is a direct. That is, rather than the communication being mediated by some process, it proceeds directly from the sender to the receiver. That doesn't seem fair to someone who has struggled to write a book and then to get it published. Big deal! Sounds like sour grapes to me. I bet Andrew Jones (at whom Fred's rant was initially aimed) get more hits than Fred gets. Maybe it's a case of click-envy. Probably shouldn't say that, but hey, I'm not a professional writer and I can get away with it.
I guess this turned into a rant of my own. Keep writing your website, Fred. I'll keep reading it. I haven't bought, nor will I probably ever buy, one of your books. But this new medium has lots to offer, and you have thrown your hat in the ring, and lots of people will be interested in that. A few people will be interested in what I have to write, even though I am not and will never be a pro. I hope to encourage some of them.
May God bless the Christian bloggers and the Christian blog-readers. As Bene says, "Blog on!"
Replies: 1 Comment
I think because blogging is a different and more fluid dynamic that many forms of communication we all go 'off the rails' as we adjust to this medium.
I agree with you, we grow past many of these points Fred raised.
And having watched and participated, any blogger in this for ego gratification gets lonely real fast. It tends to be a commons, and a self-correcting space. Blog on!
Posted by Bene Diction @ 05/28/2003 10:43 AM EST
Copyright 2001-2003 Randall McRoberts