From A Frequent Though Casual Observer: What's Being Blogged?

Many have addictively latched on to the idea of blogs and blogging because the underlying concept has snowballed across the globe into one indeterminable blob of written work splattered across the wide firmament of the web. From most accounts filed from extensive surveys, many continue to hitch up to this idea, adding something like a few thousand new blogging sites each minute (or is it every day? Who really knows. As a result the blog world has exponentially grown faster giving the vaunted and awesome Moore's law quite a run for its money in the area of phenomenal growth.

It is the current rage and most everybody with some exposure to information technology, big and small, important or unimportant, have deigned it proper and "cool" to be an active part of it. Free access and availability of sources and resources for putting together one's own blog creation have hastened and accelerated its growth.

To a point of satiation? Who knows. Where do we reach the point where the law of diminishing utility and/or value starts to kick in? Do we need a billion blog sites for us to be able to justifiably say we have sufficient divergent choices in the pool to get well-rounded views of the world, both of the physical and of that ether which exists in the minds of men? Who knows.

Suffice it say that at this point in time, blogs are an assorted coterie of writings ranging from the mundane to the sublime, from the real to the ethereal, from the most personal to the most public, from the well-prepared to the hasty unedited prose, etc., etc. Thus to reduce to as simple as simplicity can dictate, a blog is said to be nothing more than a personal journal of an author committed to updating his/her site regularly. Its very loose definition allows justification and comfort to most anybody maintaining and/or navigating through one's own created blog or one done professionally. It's pretty much like art, as many may adjudge it but not necessarily in the classical sense. What it is is pretty much dependent on the judgment of the beholder. And in this instance, the beholder is a rather liberal and accommodating judge, given to giving much latitude in its interpretation.

Thus, when one goes around the blog world, the dizzying swirl of divergent writings in equally divergent styles, format, orientation, purposes, etc., creates a mental labyrinth quite formidable to unravel and to make sense of in one's unending quest for understanding and wisdom.

Is there a common thread that allows it to be easily lent to some definition and categorization, so that one can readily understand and discern that one blog is similar to another, and/or to the million others already born or being birthed. If not similar, then at least that they all share the same methodology, rules, standards, etc., much like the other more classical bodies of human prose and/or verse. No doubt, we can search for them, navigate through them, or read through them, in one new common medium - the web or the Internet, two terms now quite interchangeable. But other than that, they are mostly a motley aggrupation of seemingly very dissimilar works.

Until such time that such issues are adequately threshed out and resolved, I have been pushed to decide to continue travelling through the thick world of the blogs, laden with all my stubborn doubts, nagging questions, unexplained confusion, etc., which irritate me to no end during my regular incursions.

I will thus continue reading avidly about political issues from across the globe, culled from all possible political orientation. Hard issues that affect a local country or those that impact on the entire globe. I will continue to encounter riveting treatises, written in most admirable fashion, logic and articulation; or those pretty much like pedestrian prose, complete with typos and simply, grammatical and/or syntax errors. This I do because I find this world most fascinating, most interesting, and most difficult to discern.

But I will also encounter those really personal journals, some vying to outdo the others in pushing the proverbial envelope; like narrating uninhibited sexual encounters, vivid descriptions of physical attributes both personal or those of loved ones. Details that traditionally or simply belong to one's innermost privacies. Or subjects considered taboos or anathema in polite conversation.

I will also occasionally indulge myself in reading from very narcissistic authors and/or commentaries, those who have found easy fora for self promotion, giving vent to their unbridled love of self and prodigiously extolling their perceived special gifts, whether in writing or in other fields. Some will frame their high-strung and erudite arguments or treatises with a plethora of high-brow references to acclaimed authors and their works, hoping to bring any recalcitrant reader into awe-full submission, if not to God-awful reverence for or admiration of their well-honed minds.

And again, suffice it to say that the blogosphere takes all kinds. Think about it, search for it, and you most undoubtedly will find it. Want movie reviews? You will be inundated with them ranging from fledgling critics (such as those who simply had the fortune of seeing the particular movie and others), to the avowed ones who earn their living doing them and either rightly or wrongly, are so recognized by society at large.

In fine, this simply is the current state of the blogosphere. Though it definitely continues to be a medium in a perpetual state of transition. Anyway, go play in it, and get exercised exhilarated, enlightened, or maybe even confused and dumbfounded. Remember, different strokes for different folks.

Just make sure to keep a cautious watch of your sanity. Or maybe check it at the door upon entering.