A-Musings ...

Blah-blah-blog ...

First, to open: my anti-blog rant -

Okay, after days, weeks, months, years of resisting the pull of the tide, the trend of the times, I’m drinking the Kool-Aid: I’m blogging.  I’m becoming a blogger.  A blah-blah-blah-blogger.

(Yes, smart-alecks – I’m well aware that blogging has long passed the point of cool or current and has entered the realm of ho-hum and so what.   That's fine:  I’m sooooo not an iconoclast or early adaptor or trend setter or fashion follower – never was ...)

Blog.  Even the word smacks of silly.  Twee.  Nominal.  Trifling.  Insignificant and impressive.  Blaaaaaaaagh.  Occupying the panoply of recently-coined cute-isms such as Google!  Twitter!  Facebook!  Friendster!  The infantalization of the American mind continues to spread unchecked, tainting the language, taking over our vocabulary, seeping into our psyches … don’t get me started.

Maybe it's generational.  Okay, I do get it that the "kids" would like to blog.  (Jeez, noun or verb, I find the monosyllabic word uninspiring; ugly, curt, flat, blah, it utterly lacks charm and nuance.  In the same family: text.) An on-line diary makes perfect sense.  For teenagers.  It marries two of their biggest obsessions:  their life (friends, family, fears, feelings, humiliations, loves, thoughts, experiences, etc.) and their computers. Anyone who remembers those hormone-flooded days of turmoil and trouble, of worry and insecurity, of frustration and change, understands the appeal of unburdening and processing through journaling.  But isn't a diary supposed to be, like, private?  A sacred space where one spends time with one's self, with one's soul, alone, working things through?  Where one gives face-time and voice to one's hidden desires, secret demons, thereby releasing them?  Somewhere along the way, in our media-drenched, celebrity-emulating, reality-show culture, the personal became public.   The average was raised to the elite.  Once we tasted our 15 minutes of fame, we craved more - and more and more and more.  We adopted the PR person's credo of "any news coverage, even bad, is good."  Sorry, but I was raised to believe that rather than air one's dirty laundry, just wash it! 

Not to mention, writing is hard!

Blogging is now about sharing information and opinions.  We now have the means to hear and be heard.  A forum open to all.  So I think the more important question here might be:  how can we use this medium to do some good?  If done properly, venting can be quite cathartic - it allows us to air our grievances, release our anger, unburden.  Rather than use it as a forum for unburdening, for ranting and raving, or getting into a debate or fighting match over who's right about what, we can take it a step further:  use this space as a place to exchange ideas, invent, innovate, maybe come up with creative solutions. 

http://a-muse-in-manhattan.blogspot.com/