News Discussion # 11

Twitter, Flickr, Facebook Make Blogs Look So 2004

http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay

Writer Paul Boutin offers a direct and clear warning to web loggers and adds his own personal commentary on the state of the blogosphere in 2008 by comparing web blogs to sites like Twitter and Facebook. Boutin’s main plug is that blogs are outdated, their use as a tool of “folksy self-expression and clever thought” has expired and degraded. His advice is simple: Get rid of your blog or cease your efforts to create one. His primary reason for arguing the illegitimacy of modern blogs is the supposed inability to have your voice recognized and heard on the web and the supposed plethora of “cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns” that have sabotaged enthusiastic amateur bloggers. The argument however, comes across much more as an agitated puff of hot air rather than a well-reasoned and backed perspective. Boutin fails to take into account the wide range of reasons that people start and maintain blogs. Placing on the top of a google search list isn’t the main motive of most people to write an online blog. Blogs cover an almost limitless range of topics, many are specialized to specific subjects are trade, some are written by professional writers and journalists and others by teens or amateur entrepreneurs.

The claims the author makes seem somewhat irrelevant to me, especially the commentary on the lack of blog links at the top of a Google search result – instead “a search for Barack Obama’s latest speech will deliver a Wikipedia page, a Fox News article, and a few entries from professionally run sites like Politico.com.” I have no doubt that this is true but I fail to see how this is a negative incidence. Considering the political nature and weight of the topic I want legitimate, professional news sources to appear at the top of the search result list rather than blogs by amateur writers. I agree is it inevitably harder now to have your opinions heard online now due to the explosion of the blogosphere in recent years, but the very essence of the blogging and other Web 2.0 tools is that they are open, unregulated and consumer-generated and managed. The suggestions that Twitter and Facebook are better options may be plausible if you are simply looking for the most direct way of voicing your opinions and generating a quick response but they sites have their own limitations. Blogs, especially if you understand a little about html and web design, can add profitable informative content to the web and allow a more personal, thorough touch than any social networking site.