The Blog Epidemic

Okay, I've been thinking about this for awhile, but it's finally time that I put it in writing.

There are too many blogs in the world, and they are getting far too much attention and press.

In the past week, I have read no less than 3 "news" articles on major websites which use random blogs as their main source. All I have to say is: What The Fuck?!

Since when did schmucks like us replace the mainstream media? Since when did Bob the Janitor have a degree in journalism making him worthy of being quoted on CNN.com just because he has a blog? This is getting absolutely fucking out of control, and I think it's just a matter of time before we see some kind of vicious backlash.

Exhibit A: This item from Eonline.com about the remake of the Willy Wonka movie, starring Johnny Depp. The article talks about some similarities between Depp's Wonka and Michael Jackson. A fairly retarded comparison, and one that basically takes up space on the entertainment website. But fine, whatever. I was bored, I read the article. Then I read how this comparison was first made by a blogger, and how this was such a genius realization, the idea was a hot topic on blogs everywhere! Are you fucking kidding me? Not only do they mention this brilliant blogger by name, but they interviewed him to get more accurate ideas on his view, and they plugged his blog. With the millions of blogs out there now, how on earth could they claim this one guy was the first person to make this connection, and kiss his ass so much for doing so? Maybe I'm crazy and this is making me mad when it shouldn't, but it does.

Exhibit B: An article on CNN.com about the bombings in London yesterday. I'll spare you my personal opinion on it, and just say it's a horrible thing that happened, and my condolences to the people effected by this attack. And although the information in this article is somewhat interesting, halfway through the article is stops quoting experts, and starts pulling random quotes from unidentified people from web site postings. "On one popular Web site, one person wrote…" should NOT be the sort of information that is passed off as respectable news. Is this what our (already crappy) media is coming to? Finding a few websites and then grabbing a bunch of quotes from both sides of the issue, and then slapping that together and calling it an article? Sheesh.

Exhibit C: And last, but not least, we have this one, where a child molester and killer may very well have incriminated himself and even given hints of what was to come. Before the advent of blogs, people who wanted to keep their own personal thoughts and diaries did so in the privacy of their own home, where often nobody read about their innermost thoughts and feelings. Now, you have people writing these diaries online for all the world to see. Is that a good thing or bad thing? Well, that's a whole different debate. On one hand, someone paying a bit more attention might have recognized the warning signs in this guy's writings, and been able to stop him. On the other hand, his writings could have been a cry for help. An attempt to get some attention and have someone reach out to him and help him through his problems. With the hundreds of thousands of blogs out there now, being noticed and attracting the attention of someone who can or will help is pretty unlikely. So maybe, just maybe, when his trouble blog entries went unnoticed and unanswered, he again felt shunned and ignored by society, and that was the final straw that put him over the edge. Am I over-analyzing a bit? Perhaps. Is it at least a possibility, if not in the case, then in future cases? I'd say so. I fear that this is not the first nor the last time we find out after the fact that criminals had blogs outlining their thought processes and signaling their planned crimes.

What's my point? Well, I'm not sure I really have one. Which would make me like every other fucking idiot out there writing pointless blog entries right now. No, I take that back. I do have a point. My point is that this phenomenon has gotten way out of control. Anybody and everybody has a blog now, and think that people care about what they write about. Some people have realistic expectations, and know that only a handful of their friends will actually read what they write (sort of like this one). But others out there are delusional. They think they will be noticed. They think they have something to say that has not been said before, something that is so interesting that everybody will be talking about it, or something so controversial that they will be all over the news. And, when you see websites like Yahoo and Eonline devoting articles to such blog-birthed concepts as the connection between Willy Wonka and Michael Jackson, their hopes are given a bit of a boost. I'm sure we'll see even more and more blogs popping up as the weeks and months go on, and I'm sure we'll notice more news articles simply ripping off ideas that seem to pop up there, regardless if there really is any way to confirm the actual origin of new ideas.

In the meantime… football season is coming soon, and I'm sure we'll come up with plenty of clichés and analysis that has been done a hundred times before on other websites and blogs. We can only hope that someday, somehow, we come up with a unique thought that catches the eyes of the masses and gets us some press time on a major news website. Speaking of which… has anybody else noticed the similarities between Michael Jackson and Jeff Garcia…