My response to Seth Finkelstein

Seth Finkelstein over at Infothought has written a post questioning the worth of Joe Schmoe blogger in the publishing world. First of all, it seems strange that a blogger would come out so strongly against blogging. He says that bloggers are not cyber-revolutionaries, but are a freak show. I agree that there are way too many people blogging in the world, but I think his comments are out of line. I left a comment on his site which I am repeating below. It's slightly disconnected, but it makes all the points I wanted to make, and to connect it properly would make it far too long.

I agree that there is no credible reason to read any individual blogger who's not affiliated with a large well-known organization. Having said that, there are individual bloggers who I read because I think they're worth reading. They have no wealth or influence; they have no position or power in society; they may not even have any intellectual merit. But a friend of mine reads them, or a separate blog post I was reading linked to them, so I decided to check out their site. Once in, I read what they wrote, found it (some nonempty subset of) entertaining, interesting, and enlightening, and decided it was worth further reading.

This is the ideal of publishing, I believe. Bloggers who have something to say, who can regularly come up with original, interesting material to post, will be followed, and their following will grow, regardless of their credentials or social connections. Sure, they may be spreading lies... but let's face it, for all we know so is Fox News. Sure they may be dumb... (repeat previous comment). But if we like reading their blog we will keep doing it and we will tell our friends.

Yes, there are far too many people blogging in the world. I'm one of them, even though I'm not any good at it. I think that someday I will be, so I am practicing for that eventual day. For the many, many other people who write meaningless blogs, they will eventually stop when they realize that nobody cares, or they won't, they'll keep writing, and it won't make a bit of difference. I don't have to read it, so I don't care how much of their life they pour into it.

I think they can be cyber-revolutionaries, because they post what they feel like posting, and they have no corporate agenda or filter to follow. The power of the social network to spread their message is still limited - but it's stronger than many people think, and it's still increasing. The world of mass publishing will never be the same now that blogging has entered the picture.

Update: I want to modify and apologize... Seth didn't come out "against blogging" as I originally said. A better description would be that he was dismissive of the power of bloggers. I stand by my response, I just wanted to correct the preamble to it posted here.