Kent Newsome on technology, music and life

9/06/2006


In Search of a More Conversational Blogosphere

The blogosphere is boring me lately, so I need to make some adjustments. I need to find a more conversational blogosphere.

My dilemma is the result of a couple of patterns. Stated simply, the first is a growing realization that I simply don't care about a lot of the stuff that pops up in my RSS feeds lately. I don't really care that Six Apart bought Rojo. I think pay per view movies on a cell phone is perhaps the silliest thing I've ever heard of. I can't even muster enough interest to write a separate post about how silly it is.

I am tired of the same old same old. Dave Winer reminding us once again that he invented something people are talking about today a long time ago. I don't really care that Dave invented everything we talk about. Good for him. I'm just bored with hearing about it.

Is there any place for modesty in the blogosphere- or has it become one giant billboard for self-promotion?

I'm weary of hearing people who have done everything they can do to raise their profile in the blogosphere proclaim that they don't care about traffic. Let some of those folks talk to themselves for about a week and see how they feel. It's perfectly OK to raise your image and try to become influential among the hundreds of people who care what a blogger thinks. But it is hypocritical on its face to then turn around and say traffic (the blogosphere's attention equivalent) isn't important to you.

If people won't be intellectually honest about their intentions, is there a basis for conversation?

I'm bored with reading the latest cheerleader report on how Web 2.0 is big business poised to change the world. No one seems to see beyond the boundaries of the blogosphere. It's cool if you really think the next social bookmarking service is going to change the world. I'm just tired of hearing it- particularly from people with skin in the game. We've talked about the easily identified conflicts of interest in the blogopshere, but the less obvious ones are a bigger, and growing, problem.

It just seems like the blogosphere is becoming an online series of tupperware parties where friends move money around amongst themselves while they wait for the mythical third party tupperware lover to show up. It's Eugene O'Neill, Stanley Kubrick style.

The second troubling pattern is the echo chamber that we talk about from time to time. Some self or temporally appointed smart guy says something that is supposed to be clever or earth-shattering and then, like the anchovies at the Krusty Krab, tons of others pile out of the bus and say the same thing. With so many people saying the same thing, conversations are simply not possible. There's just the drone of a hundred keyboards typing the same words.

And finally, I'm exhausted from trying to have conversations with people who don't share my view of the blogosphere as conversational. Blogging is a lot of different stuff for a lot of different people. For me, it's not about spouting off my latest philosophy and it's certainly not about making money. It's supposed to be about having fun. It's supposed to be about learning stuff and sharing interests. The more I think about it, using blogging as a way to make money or become influential is, well, boring. Can't we just be regular people and talk about interesting stuff? Sure we can. If we make an effort to seek out like-minded individuals.

It's not wrong to think of the blogosphere differently than I do. Good luck to those who think blogging is going to make them rich or famous or get them a Wikipedia entry. It's just more fun to find people who come at the blogging thing from a similar place.

So I have decided to seek out a more conversational blogosphere. Gone from my blogroll will be those whose primary purpose, be it disclosed or not, is wealth accumulation or self-aggrandizement. I would find those people boring in the real world. The fact that they found the little room at the end of the hall before me doesn't make them any less boring.

In sum, I either have to fix my blogging outlook or stand by and watch my blogging interest go to zero the way so many of my stocks did back in Bubble 1.0

I want to find, link to and converse with the sort of people I'd enjoy talking to in the real world. I'm going to need some help finding them. But I'm pretty committed to this new manifesto.

I'm interested in tech, obviously. And I think much of the Web 2.0 stuff is cool- taken in the right context. I'm interested in music, movies, humor, photography and self-expression in general. I want to talk and learn about that stuff. I'm tired of talking at people who aren't listening and I'm concerned that by doing that, I am missing out on better and more useful conversations that are happening somewhere else.

It's going to be a bit of trial and error and it may completely fail. I may end up in an even smaller room all by myself. But I have to try.

Otherwise, my blog is going to wither and die out of sheer boredom.

I'm going to have some space on my blogroll. If you know of anyone interesting I should add, let me know.

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Posted by Kent @ 9/06/2006 09:56:00 PM | Permalink

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12 Comment(s):

Good luck, Kent. I share many of your thoughts on the echo chamber, etc. For what it's worth, when I'm feeling bored with the blogosphere I do one of three things: check out "a daily dose of imagery" (wvs.topleftpixel.com), check out Ze Frank (www.zefrank.com) or (last resort) go outside :-)

By Anonymous Mathew Ingram, at 9/06/2006 11:02 PM  
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I hear you, man. I think the blogosphere just echos everyday life, though. Most people are trying to make a buck or want to be acknowledged in the real world, as in cyberspace. Genuine thought and conversation is lacking.

By Anonymous Anonymous, at 9/07/2006 12:18 AM  
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I already have a Wikipedia entry :-)
And (as you know), I wish it would just go away - it's brought me nothing but trolling and pain.

One of the dirty little secrets of blogging is that it's actually a darn poor method of conversation (when that word is used to actually mean conversation, not marketing). Diary or pontification, fine. But LiveJournal and MySpace are much better optimized for socializing.

So people who aren't in it for wealth accumulation or self-aggrandizement are pushed to either giving up, or migrating to some other better chat-oriented site.

By Blogger Seth Finkelstein, at 9/07/2006 12:34 AM  
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Hear, hear.

Makes me think that I better head out this weekend to listen to some music and clear my head. It's getting all bloggy.:-).

By Anonymous Alex Williams, at 9/07/2006 1:56 AM  
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Funny timing. I started using StumbleUpon again yesterday for just the same reason. I figure if I spend a little time blindly surfing the internet about topics I like, I might find a few new things I like to read.

I'm not 100% sold. I seem to land on a lot of product sales pages, but I did find a few new blogs of interest yesterday.

Also, movies on a phone might be a "dumb" idea, but I bet a ton of people will use it. The video iPod phenomenon seems to be catching on. And, kids who are growing up watching videos everytime they get in the car are not going to be content to not be able to watch videos when they are sitting at a park or waiting for the bus.

By Anonymous Mike, at 9/07/2006 5:33 AM  
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Blog conversations often seem to end up as mutual pats on the back. It's not very often that you read: "X has written a new blog entry about Y, and he's talking complete nonsense".

I think also the format's built-in pressure to keep posting means that lame entries like "X published a good post about Y. Here's an excerpt" are positively encouraged.

By Anonymous Ian Delaney, at 9/07/2006 7:51 AM  
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Well put. I too look to the blogosphere as a place to learn new stuff, not to hear ad nauseum about today's new thing or the latest Facebook redesign.

By Anonymous Larry Borsato, at 9/07/2006 9:28 AM  
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Great post. Kind of depressing, but it seems like lots of bloggers are coming to the same point you are. Good luck to you. Nice reference to Krusty Krab by the way.

By Blogger Arthur, at 9/07/2006 10:22 AM  
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Kent,

Funny, I've been thinking about eliminating some of the feeds that I regularly just mark "read" even though they're the ones "everybody" reads. I've been attracted more towards readers that nobody else seems to know about.

Glad to see that your reading list contains one Chip Camden. Thanks!

By Anonymous Sterling "Chip" Camden, at 9/07/2006 12:23 PM  
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Thanks for the comments.

Mathew: Ze Frank is cool and funny, but he's in the process of being assimilated by the Borg.

Seth: I used to disagree with you about blogging being a poor method of conversation, but I'm starting to turn. When people are standing in front of you, there's at least some social pressure to be polite. I've said many times that blogs are like cars- they bring out the inner asshole in people. Maybe the same forces work against conversation. I think if we get enough people interested in the conversational manifesto, we can still create a fun and useful exchange. At least I hope so. But to do it, we have to walk away from the closed circle of the self-important blogstars.

Mike, I got ripped in the comments for not choosing StumbleUpon as a round winner in my Web 2.0 wars. It clearly has some fans. I'm not sold at all on either iPod videos or cell phone videos as a business. It's just something to do once or twice because you can. Having said that, I did listen to Sirius on the phone Sprint sent me to review- and that was pretty cool.

Ian: Yes, and, at least at the top of blogger's hill, the pats generally go back and forth between bloggers who are part of the in-crowd. My ultimate plan is to recreate the in-crowd with people who do more than bounce links between themselves.

Larry: it was actually the 1000 Facebook links along with the Rojo sale that led me to conclude that I just don't give a shit about a lot of the stuff that seems vitally important to some. It's not that I don't want to talk about tech- because I do. But one high school science project absorbing another just doesn't excite me anymore.

Arthur: Every time I see those Anchovies on Sponge Bob, I think to myself "that looks like my RSS feeds."

Chip: guys like you and Earl, Richard, Mathew, Seth (if I can browbeat him into not quitting blogging), etc. are the sort of people I want to build the new blogosphere around.

If we, as bloggers, are getting bored with the same old, same old, you know a lot of readers are too. There is an oppotunity here to beat the blogging cartel at its own game- and have a blast along the way.

By Blogger Kent, at 9/07/2006 4:33 PM  
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On the flip side, perhaps this boils down to "there is no spoon." It's not that the stuff on your blogroll is inherently boring, but instead, it is YOU who changed, and those blogs/sites aren't adapting to your evolving interests.

He says, listed on your blogroll (start page?). For now. :-)

Also, I am stewing on some thoughts in the direction that you're speaking to with this post. Your stewage is helping me with mine. So mission accomplished in some small way in the "conversation" department.

By Anonymous Ethan, at 9/08/2006 11:30 AM  
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I have been searching off and on for a conversational community for over a year, and still come up short. There are a lot of technical and political communities, but that isn't all I want to talk about. I'd like to talk about the things I talk about with my face-to-face friends: architecture, photography, retirement, animals, movies, tv shows, genealogy, miniatures, crochet, online gaming, politics, family, friends, dance, exercise, travel, languages, and so on. I've tried friendster, penpal sites and others, and it's incredibly frustrating - especially since I do not fall into the 15 to 30 age bracket.

By Anonymous Ellen, at 1/06/2007 1:35 PM  
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