I am Matt Thomas.

The Sun Hath Spoken

May 19, 2005

That paragon of journalistic quality, the Baltimore Sun, has issued an edict from on high: blogs make you stupid.

In Victoria Brownworth’s article (or would she rather I call it an essay?), The long arm of the blog, the author expresses her discontent over what she perceives to be a “sprawl, fast encroaching on the fragile landscape of the finely wrought essay.”

Brownworth devotes 1,308 words to an ill-advised hypothesis—that blogging is destroying modern writing. As proof, she offers a loose comparison of Jonathan Swift’s A Modest Proposal to every single blog ever written—she makes no distinction. She does, however, make a point of mentioning The Drudge Report. Brownworth operates under two mutually exclusive assumptions: that writers of our generation are dallying away our time blogging instead of commiting our efforts to writing with a higher purpose, and that blogs are written by those who ought to otherwise remain unread.

But, had Brownstone bothered to make a comparison to real blogs rather than taking a quick tour ‘round LiveJournal, she might have realized the larger point of the medium. Rather than as simply a vehicle with which to satiate the long-winded’s desire to bloviate upon subjects they know nothing about (after all, the Sun appears to be a suitable medium for that), many bloggers use it as an extraordinarily convenient method with which to exchange salient information expeditiously and reliably. While I, personally, almost certainly fall into the former category, countless bloggers—ones with far more notable readership than I—are doing amazing, and worthwhile, things with the medium.

This medium allows an aspect of interactivity that we’ve never before had, as an author and his readers are able to instantly connect to discuss the issue at greater length. While Victoria Brownworth may have little use for the input of the lowly masses who read her work, many of us find that capacity for interaction invaluable. The medium has enabled me to connect with peers in my field who have made my work better in inestimable ways. As a web designer, reading Jeffrey Zeldman and Eric Meyer’s books helped me plenty in my quest for knowledge. Reading their blogs helped me more.

Victoria, you are clearly a gifted linguist. You would do well, however, to come over to the dark side. Read good blogs, and write one of your own. Then, not only will you be apt not to make such factual mistakes as calling the Drudge Report a blog, but you might get that thorn out of your side, stop being so uptight about the validity of personally-published writing, and start posting pictures of your cats on Fridays. You know you want to.