May 05, 2004What's Going On?One of the greatest joys of blogging -- that so many non-bloggers just can't understand -- is that many of us are joined together by common interests. The primary one, as near as I can tell, is that all of us -- and by "us", I'm referring to the folks over in my Linkage, and many of the ones in YOUR Linkage -- we all share a passion for What's Happening Now. We are, at our core, news junkies and pop-culture addicts.
We hit Drudge and CNN and Yahoo news and FoxNews.com a dozen time per day...we know who the Secretary of the Interior is...we know (sadly) who Ted Rall is...we care about the things that are below the fold...we still chuckle over seeing the word "blog" in print...we thrive on Jeopardy-type knowledge...we know the difference between the Washington Post and the Washington Times...we enjoy being the first to know something..we know what DU and Alternet are, and why they're rotten....we've seen the Photoshopped picture that one of co-workers forwarded to us today, only we saw it four months ago when it was "fresh"...we know what Bill Maher, Laura Ingraham, Joe Scarborough, and George Will look like...we know more about Senators from other states than our neighbors know about their own Senators, and we don't need a (D) or (R) to identify party or ideology when politicians appear on-screen...we know who Joe Trippi is (or was - heh)... And so on. In other words, for many of us, our hobby is Current Events. Now. And that's one of the primary attractions of blogging. Bloggers, as a rule, are very up-to-date on political, policy, military, cultural, and entertainment news and events. Here's a fer-instance: at a farewell lunch for a co-worker last summer, I commented that he looked a little bit like Sean Hannity. He stared at me blankly. I asked the fifteen or so co-workers seated with us if they agreed - and not a single one of them knew who I was talking about. I shook my head and said "Hannity & Colmes? The TV show on Fox News Channel?" Nothing. It just shocked me that there are people who don't know who Hannity & Colmes look like, let alone who they are. And I'm not even a big fan of the show - Colmes is too timid, and Hannity too often appeals more to emotion than to reason. But it just seemed odd to me to encounter people who don't know about the show. But all of you that are reading this know who Hannity is - Colmes, too, and so many other politicians, publishers, pundits, and such. That's one of the big "strings" that ties bloggers together. Yes, there are other shared interests and reasons for blogging, but I think that this is one of the Big Ones. Maybe I'm wrong. It's just neat to hang out with people who enjoy staying Current. (sorry for what may appear to be a rambling post, by the way) Posted at May 5, 2004 09:25 PM | TrackBackCOMMENTS!
I think you've hit the nail on the head. I had a similar experience in my Web Page Design class. The instructor had us check out blogs and write about what we thought. I was the only person in the class who knew what blogs were, let alone used them. The rest of the class wasn't impressed; several said that blogs were nothing but "biased political crap" and that they preferred to get their news from the networks. I told them that they had no clue what was really going on in the world then. Posted by: Rita at May 6, 2004 11:54 AMThe reason we are like that? If we learn about what is happening today tomorrow, it's old news. It happened yesterday. Posted by: Easycure at May 6, 2004 01:30 PMI agree totally! I am constantly amazed by the number of people I work with who pride themselves on never reading a newspaper and could care less about what's going on around them. I feel like an alien most of the time...except in the blog world! Posted by: Candy at May 6, 2004 08:48 PMWhat's happening now is so difficult . . . Posted by: SB at May 7, 2004 11:20 PMYes, I love blogging, where else could you post a Governor's picture under the headline, "Drawbacks of having sex with kids" Found here: http://www.freespeech.com/archives/002580.html I may have taken down Governor Rowland of Connecticut with my blogs and my previous letters to the editor, and the head of the Connecticut State Police may also be on his way down. I went to prison testing Free Speech in newspapers in Connecticut. Now that I blog and am out of reach in another State, I can say what I want am not having police officers on my lawn telling me to leave the "State or else" Free Speech may actually exist, if not in reality, but on the internet ... Posted by: Steven G. Erickson at May 8, 2004 11:58 AMPost a comment
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