Do you blogP
Not just personal home pages, web logs reflect their creators’ character.
By Marc Gerard
Blog. It’s a strange word, isn’t it? Sounds kind of like a race of
beings in Star Wars, or the name of a punk band. But in fact
a blog is something quite different.
Imagine if you could take your journal or diary and make it a
web page, complete with your thoughts on life, some guest
appearances from your friends, some links to your
favorite sites, and anything else you came across. It
wouldn’t be perfect, it might not always make sense, but
it’d be you—honest, unedited, and one day at a time.
Well such a site exists. It’s called a blog.
The word is an abbreviation for “web log,” and that
about sums it up. A blog
is simply a regularly
updated site. And while
that’s a pretty basic idea,
blogging has triggered
an Internet phenomenon:
a different breed of web
site that pulls together
ramblings, thoughts,
facts, links—anything
and everything that the
web has to offer. For
some it’s an online journal, for others it’s a newspaper or a
type of self-portrait.
“Blogging, for me, is a healthy channel to share my frus
trations,” said Patrick Lao, a student at Wesleyan University
and creator of the blog “I’ve Seen Better Days”
(rlao.web.wes leyan.edu). “Some people vent by smoking
and drinking, or working out. I vent by blogging.”
Vent he does, and so do others on his site. Visit Lao’s blog and
you’ll find anything from words of the day—like falafel—to rantings
about his life, to pictures and links. It’s random and subject to
Lao's mood and interests at the time.
think and hope others will identify with, or maybe disagree and
teach me a thing or two in the process.”
And it’s hard to classify blogs, or pin them down, because
they’re always changing, said Meg Pickard, creator of the blog
“Not So Soft” (notsosoft.com/blog).
“For me, a web log is constructed in the
act of updating. As soon as it stops growing
and changing, it’s dead," said Pickard. “When
I write my web log I’m being me, digitally and
sequentially. And publicly. My web log is a
way of constructing myself in digital form.”
Blogging isn't anything new, say its prac
titioners. And though some have referred to
blogging as a new type of journalism, or even a work of art,
these bloggers don't think those terms fit.
“Blogging started as a way for people to publish their com
mentary about specific web sites, or other aspects of the Internet,
but it grew so far beyond that so quickly that it's almost impossi
ble to define now," said Rabi Whitaker, a student at Swarthmore
College and creator of “Wockerjabby”
(wockerjabby.com). “I don't think blogging
as a whole is an art form any more than
small talk or political debates are art forms.
“Blogging is, at its core, a whole lot
of people talking to each other in public
space,” said Whitaker. “If anything, it’s a
gigantic social science experiment, where
we are all the participants and observers
at once."
So where do you find these bloggers?
All over the Internet, really; type the word “blog” into any search
engine and you’re sure to come up with more than you can possi
bly sort through.
The sites you discover
or create might not be
‘When I write my web log I'm being me, digitally and sequentially. And
publicly. My web log Is a way of constructing myself in digital form.”
“Blogging is a ritual," said Lao. “A blog is like a Pokemon. It
must be fed daily, groomed, and occasionally used to lambaste
other people."
The concept means different things to different people. Visit
the popular blog “Robot Wisdom” (robotwisdom.com), and
you’ll find a list of links to quirky sites. Kottke.org, meanwhile, is
a popular diary-entry blog. And other blogs fall in between. This
is one of the concepts behind blogging, said Jared Dunn, a stu
dent at the University of Illinois, and creator of the blog Entropy
(students.uiuc.edu/~jddunn/entropy).
“My (blog) is quite aimless, really,” said Dunn. “It’s just a pub
lic venue for me to sort myself out, to get my ideas out there
somewhere to connect with people. I don't try to keep any sort of
focus at all. I find that rather boring and limiting. I just write what I
slick or regularly updated,
but they will feel real.
Perhaps that's why people
seem to enjoy reading
them so much.
“I'm not doing any
thing unique here,” said
Dunn. “I’m just spewing
out harebrained ideas
when the urge hits me.
Some people seem to like
it, though. Who knows
why, exactly?” •
Look at these popular blogs to
see what it’s all about:
Larkfarm.com/weblog_
madness.htm
Evhead.com
Sixfoot6.com
Highindustrial.com
Underachievers.com
Electrobacon.com/apathy
To create your own blog,
check out these sites:
Blogger.com
Pitas.com
Newsblogger.com
Weblogs.com