Blogstars (Blog Class Filter 2.0)

The blogosphere is a large domain in which any person can express themselves in any way they choose. It's growing every day, with people getting their own blogs and contributing their own ideas (or lack of them). While many people suggest that blogs are the end of Western Civilization, I absolutely agree with them.

Ha, bet you didn't see that coming.

In our culture we have this innate need to be famous and allow people to see us, and while some bloggers are genuinely furthering literature, most only care about themselves. Last night I was happy with blogs because I was reading some really fascinating things by my classmates who have some geniunely great ideas. But then I stumbled over to Xiaxue's site and was immediately disgusted. In truth, she is one of these people who loves herself and can't get enough attention. People love this blog because Xiaxue presents herself as a celebrity and our fascination with celebrities is at a boiling point.

This morning on the radio, Gary Craig presented something he called the "anti-Hollywood report" and it made me laugh primarily because it was so dumb. Every morning he does something on his show called the "Hollywood report" in which his token female (every morning show needs one) reads celebrity gossip. The "anti-Hollywood" report is the same exact thing, except every so often Gary Craig talks about how ridiculous it is that people care what celebrities are saying.

So stop doing the report, idiot.

I think the intentions people have with blogs are great. A lot of people really do want to express their own ideas and further dialogue with other people. Yesterday I spent a good portion of the day just commenting on posts I thought were interesting and had some good ideas because I wanted to have an intelligent conversation. But really, blogs are making people so into themselves that they really can't care about anything else. They live to further their blogebrity status.

What's worse is the report last night that Taylor Behl's killer was an avid blogger and he met Taylor through Livejournal or MySpace. Is the blogging world creating socially awkward and mentally disturbed people who can't see the difference between their blogs and reality?

Of course, there's Cory Doctorow who is actually trying to turn blogs into a cohesive literary form. His online novel is fascinating. Cory, dude, you're my hero.

This weekend, I also realized I'm as guilty as anyone for wanting to increase my celebrity blog status. I want my ideas and jokes to be read and thought about in a meaningful way. However, I don't think it's as much about me as it is my ruminations that I want people to notice.

Oh, and as an English teacher, blogs like this (picked at random) bother me because it's becoming perfectly acceptable to write this poorly. I advocate writing as much as possible, but web writing is seriously infiltrating schools. Man I feel jaded today. Did I even cover the correct topic? Well at least I maybe have made a dent in a paper I'm thinking about writing.