Second Stab at Vlogs (Blogclass Filter I'm Bored)

I was about to punt this week, and the primary reason was that I can't get into vlogs. Our culture has been inundated with video to the point where watching more video just seems foolish to me. The reason why I read blogs is because I'm interested in reading people's thoughts. Seeing people on video isn't the same.

I've recently gotten into a blog where the last entry was the girl breaking up with her boyfriend. Before that she posted daily for almost four years. After reading the last entry, I went back to her first entry and read through all her entries. The journey was terrific. Vlogs just don't have that kind of interest level for me. Normally I skip television (except House) because I don't find videography to be an intellectual pursuit. I have the same feeling while watching vlogs, but worse because vlogs aren't as elegant.

The thing is, writing errors are easy to ignore and look past in order to get to the right content. Errors in video stick out and effect that medium. I'm just not convinced that vlogs will become anything more than a small sub-genre of blogging.

Of course, Rocketboom mentioned how Zack Braff was keeping up a vlog, and I was immediately interested. Okay, it ended up he only did it once, but it was still interesting to watch. Of course, Braff is a celebrity and a pretty funny guy. He naturally takes to the camera. Most of us don't have the kind of charisma he has though, especially considering our society is obsessed with natural views of celebrities.

This medium may end up succeeding in the movie world, where movie productions have taken marketing to a whole new level. Peter Jackson posts a vlog on King Kong every couple of weeks. Bryan Singer's Superman also has a fascinating vlog. George Lucas recently padded his bulging wallet with his own vlog during the making of Revenge of the Sith. But really, these things don't count as real vlogs primarily because they are out together by professionals. Still, candid views of filmmaking are fascinating.

So I didn't punt but well I kind of punted. My quick final word on vlogs: good for a quick laugh but not much else.