Will Blogging Last? Part 1
Has blogging reached its height yet? It's hard to know. There are thousands of blogs out there, and I'm sure someone has attempted to count them all. The problem is, making an accurate count would be difficult. Do you filter out the blogs that haven't updated in a while? How long would you consider "a while"? And what of blogs like Daas Hedyot (and now myself as well, I guess), that only post very sporadically? Does a blog have to be daily? Weekly? Should they be counted equally?
As an introduction to this piece, I would divide blogs into three categories, with some slight overlap: expert blogs, niche blogs, and everything else (for lack of a better term, I'd call them "average Joe" blogs.)
Expert blogs are written by experts in their field, and usually aren't "blogspot" blogs, but are often part of a news/information website. For exampler, Buster Olney's excellent baseball blog on ESPN.com would fit into this category. So would conservative pundit Mark Levin's blog on nationalreview.com. And even though the guy creeps me out, former ESPN researcher David Pinto of Baseball Musings is probably an expert, too. These blogs are written by experts in their respective fields, people who have spent many years making a living analyzing and discussing the issues they blog about.
Niche blogs aren't necessarily written by experts, but they discuss issues and ideas you won't hear about anywhere else. The Orthodox Jewish world, because of its insularity and secretiveness, is a great breeding ground for niche blogs. UOJ and Harry Maryles give you points of view that the right-wing Yated and JO and the pareve Jewish Action and Viewpoint would never present. You won't find that stuff in any book or sefer in Eichler's, and not even at the YU book sale.
Then there's everything else. People who discuss the same well-trodden issues as everyone else out there, and just add their point of view. They'll give their take on politics, sports, personal finance, dieting, and throw in the occasional personal anecdote or cute link to a YouTube video.
I think the first two categories of blogs are safe for years to come. But the last category, I believe, will be a passing phase. And many of these "personal" blogs will eventually go the way of the pogo stick.
Why? That's for Part 2.
As an introduction to this piece, I would divide blogs into three categories, with some slight overlap: expert blogs, niche blogs, and everything else (for lack of a better term, I'd call them "average Joe" blogs.)
Expert blogs are written by experts in their field, and usually aren't "blogspot" blogs, but are often part of a news/information website. For exampler, Buster Olney's excellent baseball blog on ESPN.com would fit into this category. So would conservative pundit Mark Levin's blog on nationalreview.com. And even though the guy creeps me out, former ESPN researcher David Pinto of Baseball Musings is probably an expert, too. These blogs are written by experts in their respective fields, people who have spent many years making a living analyzing and discussing the issues they blog about.
Niche blogs aren't necessarily written by experts, but they discuss issues and ideas you won't hear about anywhere else. The Orthodox Jewish world, because of its insularity and secretiveness, is a great breeding ground for niche blogs. UOJ and Harry Maryles give you points of view that the right-wing Yated and JO and the pareve Jewish Action and Viewpoint would never present. You won't find that stuff in any book or sefer in Eichler's, and not even at the YU book sale.
Then there's everything else. People who discuss the same well-trodden issues as everyone else out there, and just add their point of view. They'll give their take on politics, sports, personal finance, dieting, and throw in the occasional personal anecdote or cute link to a YouTube video.
I think the first two categories of blogs are safe for years to come. But the last category, I believe, will be a passing phase. And many of these "personal" blogs will eventually go the way of the pogo stick.
Why? That's for Part 2.
1 Comments:
I think constant links to other sites are just plain lazy. That's what google is for, ya know?
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