My Liberal Identity:
You are a Reality-Based Intellectualist, also known as the liberal elite. You are a proud member of what’s known as the reality-based community, where science, reason, and non-Jesus-based thought reign supreme.
Take the quiz at www.FightConservatives.com
Thoughts on Blogging
The golden age of the digital diarist may be over. Have we realized blogging isn't as fun as it sounds? Or that we're not so interesting after all?
As a long-time, successful blogger, I had to comment:
Simplistic and Misleading Article
This article would make a person who knew nothing about blogs believe that all blogs are either badly-written accounts of people's mundane daily lives or commercially driven generic blogs for the purposes of making money.
Both types of blogs exist in spades, of course, but people blog for a wide variety of reasons.
I've been blogging successfully for four years. The original blog was started as a theme blog; a platform to discuss my decidedly alternative approach to sexual ethics. It branched out into an eclectic mix of topics added to the original theme. This blog also has an extensive list of links for those interested in various types of non-monogamous sexual orientations.
I do not often write about the mundane details of my everyday life. My blog is primarily my personal op-ed page where I give my personal take on a wide variety of topics; mainly cultural and social issues, politics, religion, rants, and sex.
My goal is to make people think; to consider things in ways they might not have considered before. Whether or not they end up agreeing with me is beside the point; if they've stepped outside the box, even if just for a moment, then I've done my job.
I know I've done my job when I get emails from people who are struggling with their own non-monogamous leanings who say that my blog has helped them make better sense of things.
I've met lots of like-minded people while blogging, while also making friends with and gaining understanding of those who have a different view of the world.
A couple of blog posts about why I blog:
Making People Think
Blogging Is Its Own Reward
Your thoughts?
My daughter, ever the pragmatist, convinced me to start this thing people
call blogging so I would stop talking to myself. I found it humorous given
that is what I always thought I was doing when I was talking to her. I like
to tell stories. I prefer that they have a grain of truth in them, but that
is hardly a requirement. So I don't try very hard, but tend to put
something down when there is a story to tell of some kind. And that was
true long before blogs came along. I don't really go looking all that much,
but I liked what you called yours so I stop in from time to time. Like any
form of conversation, people make of these things what they want to make of
it. Some people want to talk about politics and some want to talk about
knitting or their cat. To me that is what a conversation has always been
and always will be. Some people like to put everything in a box. To that
fellah you reference here I say good luck trying to keep this thing in a
box.
It was easier to blog when I started. As I said on my blog, I was running
out of blog material so I'm mining my other writing. I like the little
group I've found, those of us who routinely read each other's blogs and
comment. Still, I imagine there are plenty who started and who've dropped
off. Come to think of it, there are several from this original group.
As we've discussed and as Paula mentioned, we have certainly seen some
evidence to support the writer's thesis. He takes it too far when he says
that The ones left are the big alpha bloggers, well suited to the harsh
-- and fickle -- web environment. Said alphas have learned how to make
money from their wordslinging, transforming what was once a very grassroots
medium into something much more commercial. The pleasure bloggers just
didn't have the genes, nor the capitalistic instincts, to survive.
