Blogs Will Change the World..

Today I woke up and ate toast for breakfast. It was undercooked the first time, so I pushed the lever down again until it was properly browned. I had peanut butter on it, because that was what was sitting on the kitchen bench. I was running late, so I ate it while checking my e-mails and putting on my shoes.

Would you read this? Honestly? Who really wants to read someones diary? The over proliferation of blogs is much like having a multitude of extremely boring diaries posted online. Blogs can serve a useful purpose, they can be used to pass on information, to entertain, or to give a new perspective on something.

However, in all honesty that is not what most blogs are used for. They are becoming more and more a type of vanity publishing which is only really of interest to the writer's close friends and family. There is nothing inherently wrong with this. Keeping in touch with friends and family and keeping them updated on your life isn't a bad thing at all. And a blog is a very effective way to do this: your friends and family can check in with you when they have a chance, and it is less intrusive and demanding than sending out e-mails to everyone you know on a weekly basis. However, the expectations shown in the mass media that blogging is going to revolutionize the way in which information is collected and disseminated is sadly mistaken.

It's true some blogs do this. Some blogs act as a way of channeling news stories and articles relevant to certain special interest groups. Some act as watchdogs for political news. But the vast majority don't, and this is why blogs are overrated.

Blogs are a useful way of recording your everyday thoughts and activities, but these are hardly likely to be earth shattering political revelations. It's true that a few bloggers have gained relative fame and possibly fortune from their blogging, but they are the exception, and not the rule. And in each of these cases their blog stood out for some reason. Maybe they had a real flair for writing, maybe their job was of interest to many readers, maybe their experiences were truly unusual enough to draw a crowd of readers. And their accomplishments shouldn't be underrated or overlooked, but they shouldn't be taken to be the usual outcome either. And in almost all of these cases, bloggers have only really become famous or well known after they were given another medium to work from (after they got a book deal, or were featured in newspapers or on TV.)

Blogs are an interesting and useful social tool, however media coverage of them has blown them vastly out of proportion to their actual use and usefulness, causing them to be far overrated. Use them to let your parents know about that cute thing your cat did, or to vent about the irritating woman on the bus this morning. If you want to create and maintain a news blog, great, but don't expect it will make you your fortune.