Names and Faces

Okay so, now I am joinging another trend that afflicts owners of blogs. (please notice that I am refraining my use of the word blog, especially in verb form, but also in other non standard noun forms.) That is mostly for my peace of mind, because I realized how free with the terms blogger,blogging,to blog, etc....to the point where I could easily see myself referring to the blogosphere, which is completely unacceptable to me. Not because it is a completely made up word. Which it is, to be quite honest. But (and lets face it, all words are made up, at one point or another. you can go back in etemology, but in the long run, somebody made up the word. without people making up words, we couldn't communicate. so making up words isn't a bad thing. But.... in this case, it isn't good.) Basically the fact that I am using it so freely tells me I am too comfortable with a "fad". I do not believe blogging is a fad as in a flash in the pan, here today, gone tomorrow, write a hit song about it, and it will be popular for a year (i.e. 1985 by bowling for soup, or whoever they were) but, not leaving a lasting impression. I see blogs as a fad like television is a fad. First off, it was a cool device that nobody thought would last. Yet 40 (or so, more or less) years later, it's still here. And still as popular, if not more popular than ever. But those who claimed it just fad, (similar to those who claimed fire was just a fad) were not wrong. Television has become the epitome of fads. First there was programming. Shortly (almost immediatly) followed by comercialization. Which led to governemnt control (fcc..pbs..etc) which led to political correctness, which led to more commercials (of a more boring type) which led to cable. Which led to TIVO which led to reading. (well not yet, but hopefully it's on the way.) in other words. Television is a fad, but it stays a fad, because it changes to keep it's standing. First expression. (although for a very short time, since it was based on radio which was commercialized about 50 seconds after it had a wide enough market, if not sooner.) Then formality, (regular syndicated programs.) followed swiftly by competition. (three networks for quite a long time) followed (probably although I haven't researched any of this, this is mostly common sense observation) by formality. (government regulation (fcc) followed by ( {censored word} cant think of the word for government subsidies of farmers) umm...hang on....oh to heck with it subsidies (pbs...paying people to grow worhtless crops) followed by more conformity. (networks again, and then political correctness, caving to lunatics who care to write rather than those who don't say anything because they like what they see) followed by cable (alternative to original state. Variety, freedom of expression (under careful watch if not control) appeal to broader audience.) followed ultimately by dissilusionment, lack of interest in being pandered too, frustration with commercials, lack of mental stimulation, etc. which will not erode it completely (look at the slinky, or better yet jars of bubbles mix) but will pave way for the new fad, which is reading. Which is the same history of blogging. There was a new frontier. It started with expression. unique, expensive, but artisticly satisfying. Quickyl hit the commercialization stage. from a non-explored history, I would venture to guess that blogs have been around for about 38 years. (it's 2005 go back 38 years, which makes it what 1967? which coincidentally is the year I was born. ) okay not necessarily 38 years. But I would say 30 or more. when the...never mind...that is going way to deep into the history of the internet, and speculation of when blogs hit the scene. Because blogs had to have started when the internet did. Because there are alway people who feel their opinions are most important. (A little personal background, I started messing with modems in the early 90's....the internet existed, but was in it's vestigal stage. There were tons of newsgroups, and believe me, there was already plenty of advertising.) Still let us imagine for a moment a world beyond the conversation style of the newsgroup, to the journal style of the blog. I am certain that he is not the first blogger in the world. (I have no evidence, I just look at the timeline, and figure there were at least 5 people less business savvy, but more technically savvy who posted their journals online.) anyway, matt drudge has to be considered the father of the blog. he is the one who thrust blogging into the mainstream media. He is the one who showed the world the potential of blogging. And while I have no proof (although perhaps I could check the wabac, I would have to know how) I am willing to bet dollars to winchelles stock (okay unfair how bout hmmm...home depot stock) that he had advertising on his site before his stories hit the mainstream. (which was from my memory the clinton era when everything was changing both for good and bad.) So anyway, the commercial hit, and along with that, well here the history breaks off a little bit. Rather than government control and sponsership, it went direct to cable. Now everybody is welcome to post and read what they want to post, or read. Perhaps the governemtn will come up with blog control, and then we will find a new way to do the same thing to sort people. Either way, it's a changing medium. It has gone from mindless newsgroup rantings, to dedicated pages, to advertising, (and at that time there were many copycat drudge reports,l but still don't know it counts) to basically me. I am finally at the ideal time for a fad. Of course I have to have the "stuff" to last the test of time. But well, I figure my writing is freeing. if not for you, then for me. I refuse to use advertising. And I only hope someday somebody just responds saying that I freed them to type what's in their brains. Either way, it's still just a fad. it will probably fade to some voice recognition posting. something like a cross between dictation, and telephone conversations. I mean, it's here now. you have cell phones, and answering machines. Just do like they might be giants they had their dial-a-song long before blogs. (or at least during their inceptions) anyway, theirs was a simple answering machine. You dial in, you hear a song. If you were in the early days, you could tie up their machine with a long enough message, and ruin it for everybody. Anyway that technology combined (cell/answering machine) added into computers wiht tremendous storage (which are ever more frequent) means that readint will faid away again. People will speak their blogs to the computer, access theirs and others via cell phone. then comment, or not, and whatever else via phone. Blogs will linger for the eccentrics and the die hards. And people like me, who desire public expression, but are to scatter brained to actually write something the public might read. Typing will continue, but probably we will have to pay for it. Meantime the less strenuous (because it's less interactive) method of vocal communication will again have a rise, and people will once again wonder how somebody concidered the telephone a fad. well by todays standards, those phones they had are a fad....for goodness sakes, 5 people who watch nickelodian tell me they understand the reference when somebody in one of the old sitcoms picks up the phone and says "darborn 215" )or something similar) let's face it everything from slinkeys, to soap bubbles, to tv's, to blogging, to phones (which I see as the last fad...it will be replaced by nanotechnology, which will appear similar, but will eventually require thought rather than speach. This will pretty much negate the phone, but also end the human race, because there is no way we can hide our thoughts from each other, and from my observance, no way to not be offended by what other people are thinking.

so I have jumped in the rapids of the curve, and followed everyone else once again, because I want to post a follow up to the preceding post. Unfortunately my fad insights took up too much room. i am sure I am joing some group of non-sequential bloggers, but I don't care. Next time I blog, I will finish the sequal I started today, but got distracted, so didn't acutally type anything relating to it.