Blogging - for better or worse?

Since I’m bedridden for the last few days, I have taken up a new hobby, reading other people’s blogs. It’s a facinating quest for what goes on behind the curtains of the Joneses (i.e. the Svenssons and the Jansen’s). I must admit I tend to read more blogs of women than men. It’s the paradox of the leviating all things female above male versus the inner bitch that thinks “thank God I’m not like her”. Here are some observations...

Women tend to be much more ego centric than men. Although there are exceptions (I like to think I’m one of them, but in fact I know I’m equally guilty), a majority of the blogs written on a daily basis are about...NOTHING. It’s about daily life, buying fridges, dropping the kids off at school, doing the laundry and going to the gym. In short what every person on the western hemisphere of this planet is doing. There is of course nothing wrong with describing this. That’s why it’s a blog (not blogg!) as it’s a web log, a diary. So in fact most people got that right.

But it becomes more interesting. Lately a lot of celebrities have started to blog. Over seas a.k.a Hollywood you will rarely find a celeb with a blog. In fact it’s completely redundant since a) they don’t need the self-induced publicity, b) they certianly don’t need the extra cashflow (advertisement) and c) there is Perez Hilton doing the work for them. But take Sweden for example, every celeb (from A to C) has a blog. The steriotypical blog starts with “I just woke up. Feeling great! Jumped in the shower and now off for my appoinment with my lovely hairdresser. Then sushi lunch with XX. Delicious! This afternoon I have a photoshoot...” and it goes on. The Joneses are reading in envy, and typically make a sarcastic remark on the comment section.

There is a fascination, a love-hate relationship, prying into these people’s life. Like a peeping Tom we get to know these people, from a distance. We comment, mail (but never get a reply) and add them on our friendslist. Some celebs are too good to accept the invite, others do it gladly as they know these people will come back and again.

As we are blogging, reading and commenting, the Blogging world is spreading it’s wings accross the net. A decade ago, we had Models-turned-Actress as the epithet du jour. Now we have Actress-turned-Blogger, Model-turned-Blogger or the latest of the latest, Blogger-turned-TV presenter, it won’t be long before Blogger-turned-Actress and other hybrid versions appear.

But as with anything else, who bares the responsibility? The leader or the sheep. Because as much as we love to hate the blogs, we are the ones reading it. We are the ones responsible for generating revenues of 8 to 10 K (euros) a month for the most hyped up blogs. But perhaps that also gives us a fair bit of right to tell the bloggers our own opinion, no matter how stupid and obtuse it may seem.