The Reality of Blogosphere
It has been a long time since I last blogged abt something. I know it has always been on-off affairs, I guess not many things that can keep me interested for long and blogging is one of them. I may be able justified why I “disappeared” after taking the trouble to migrate to WordPress and announce/brag about it etc… with the reason that I went through a life-changing experience not long after. That will be another post…someday.
I still follow blogs even though the numbers been dwindling. Either the blogger quit or I am too tired of reading some blogger’s incessant postings of their actually very mundane life. I was just thinking in one of my bouts of insomnia…when I was thinking of blogging again. Why do people blog and why blogs remained popular as ever?
One of my theories is that since we were young and for those who were exposed to western literatures, writing diaries is common thing in childhood esp. girls. Diaries with pink, fluffy covers, or those with cute little locks…erm, I don’t know if boys keep diaries.nvm. So we are taught to pen-in our little thoughts, vent-out our angers and frustration, doodles over n over about our crushes etc. And it is always a secret thing, known only to selected few. And now as we are all grown up, many people think that blogging is like writing diary or life journal. But how many of us actually transform our “diary mentality” into blogs and wouldn’t it be freaking to let millions of people having access to your diary? Kinda. And are we prepared to let our inner thoughts in the open and mostly likely, judged by strangers? Kinda. As I’m writing this, I’m already wondering what will ppl think about this post and if there aren’t any comments, I will feel that my inner thoughts has been taken as rubbish. Anyway, I haven’t really come across diary or life-journaling blogs that is palatable to read (some really need therapy) except Minishorts. I always enjoy reading her blog – she is direct with her feelings and she can really rant and “taruh” her friends, colleagues and church people when they should deserved to be. She has balls..so to speak. And it is all true account and I can easily feel it whatever she is going through. (I’m not self-promoting myself as a blog-critic so I’ll just keep my critics on blogs simple, okie dokie)
Another theory is that we are quite “full” of ourselves and we are busybodies. So what do we get? Blogs. Many many blogs devoted to the exciting, adrenaline-pumping lives of people (note the sarcasm tone here) Kenny Sia blogged almost about every single thing that happen in his life e.g. his screwed-up fan interview with Chelsea football club to his sleep-driving accident. Man, he can even pose happily in front of his damaged car being towed out. Timothy Tiah blogged about his hotel room in Manila, about how busy he is until he almost forgot to wipe his ass. Lilian Chan blogged about how lazy she is in the morning, whatever her kids did or said, about how much money she earned by blogging etc. Note that all those mentioned are Malaysian femes bloggers… and not surprising, there are always a lot comments that followed after each fantastic account of their life’s events. Blogs are the cheaper or almost free version of tabloids magazine. It is not that we like to read about celebrities and their life outside studios. We just like to read about people – what they did, what they bought, what they eat… just about anything. Why not just asking them? No…it is more interesting reading about it. And everyone wants to be a celebrity…just that they are also the paparazzi, the tabloids reporters.
And of course the “peer pressure” factor that drive people into blogging. When I said peer pressure, I also meant politicians (except Chedet) It is fun to blog and read blogs about some incidents, events, crazy-parties or trips among a group of friends. There is the race of who post first or be the first commenter or sharing photos around esp. the embarrassing kinds. But these types of blogs generally die fast and nowadays, quite seldom to be found… thanks to Facebook. One thing I don’t get esp. in Malaysian politic scene is the sudden mushrooming of politicians’ blogs after March 2008 general election. First of all, they have been advocating the banning of blogs and calling bloggers stupid, busybodies or jobless bum. But after the Opposition swept a lot of votes of rakyat with the help from blogs (we, the bloggers like to think of it btw), almost every politicians been blogging. But they didn’t realize that one of the reasons why they lost is that many times they never use their head to think before proposing their ideas. Common people can do that. Representatives of the rakyat should never. Don’t be cheapskate…go and hire a PR or a spin-doctor instead of, a webmaster and office boy to type out your thoughts, ideas, plans, whatever and click “Post”. Why Chedet is so damn popular? because he gives logical and I hope, truthful insights of the Malaysia and the world politics scenes. He educates common people of what should and should not be done. RantingsMM…she advocates for the unfortunate people. Yeah, she is from high-social background but she is going all out to help and to show ignorant people like us what the ‘real deal’ outside our bubble is.
Hmmm…that is just my thoughts. It would seem hypocritical as I am blogging too. But the first commandment of blogging stated, “It is your blog, so blog whatever you want” We have our own moral consciousness, our own mind and our styles…so mine will be, well, just my thoughts.
