Our Bloggy Future
Matt Yglesias makes a modest point that gets bigger the longer you think about it:
[...] at the moment we have a large number of unemployed people in this country. And in a more enduring way, we have a lot of retired people in this country. And with every passing year we have more. In a lot of ways, I think retirees are going to prove to be the killer ap of digital content creation. It’s just that at the moment relatively few retired people are all that comfortable with digital media. Ten, twenty, thirty years from now that’ll be very different.
His thrust is that no liberal or progressive should fear the left blogosphere's capture by a tiny number of professional keyboard-pounders. But the broader observation is an intriguing one, because a future in which huge numbers of older Americans spend their vast leisure time blogging leaves itself open to utopian and nightmarish interpretations. You think the boomers are crushingly self-referential? Try a couple of generations raised on the internet, living well into their tenth decades and spending ten hours a day blogging! On the other hand, have blogs really increased the net amount of nonsense in the world in a worrisome way? Haven't they also increased the amount of smart, worthwhile interaction -- by people who would never have the chance to reach as wide an audience? Indeed, haven't blogs allowed people to overcome the distinction between active content production and passive content consumption?
Yes. Nonetheless...there's something profoundly different about a world in which large numbers of people -- possibly majorities -- spend a lot of time blogging (or doing something like it), and we'd be silly to pretend that some of the worst characteristics of internet life wouldn't expand into general social life in that kind of world. Perhaps worst of all, all these people on the internet might deprive themselves of the face-to-face interaction that's an essential part of what it means to be human -- to have a culture, to be a citizen, and all the rest. Nonetheless...even a lot of time on the internet doesn't make real human contact, and the development of real human relationships, impossible. Sometimes, it even helps.
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May '10
Re: Our Bloggy Future
Having followed online gaming communities for over a decade, I've seen online interactions lead to in-person interactions many times. One guy I knew acquired his job by meeting and befriending his future-boss online. Two people in my extended family met their spouses online, and have lived happily since. So online interactions can lead to productive face-to-face relationships, but there certainly are many cases of it leading to seclusion and self-indulgence as well.
Emails and blogs reintroduced letter-writing, a sorely missed art. Writing shapes a person's thoughts differently than speaking. They're both good, but emails offer that balance to many people who would otherwise only speak.
Blogs allow the opportunity for public discourse in a controlled and slightly personal setting. It's like joining an open discussion at a coffee shop or industry event, as opposed to standing in a town square and trying to engage preachers in conversation.
And blogging can exceed face-to-face discourse in ways other than the ability to read and reflect on one's thoughts. Where no one can hear, they change their minds. Where no one can see, they sympathize. And, occasionally, simply rambling lights a fire for some stranger who stumbles across your words.
May '10
Re: Our Bloggy Future
I wonder what gives Yglesias reason to believe that older folks will be more open to learning new technology in the near future than they are now or have been in the past?
May '10
Re: Our Bloggy Future
I guess this reminds me of Pauline Kael, who couldn't understand how Nixon won when absolutely no one she knew had voted for him. The large majority of US resdients don't blog- even though everybody we know is into the on-line world in a big way.
Self-selection can be deceptive. If your world is on-line journalism, everyone you meet is an on-line "journalist". Even years form now when everyone uses an iPhone, I would bet that the vast majority will only read, mostly mainstream stuff (e.g., sports), and not post their own stuff.