Does the whole "blog" thing seem like a huge fad to you?

[CalebHayes]

It really seems like one of those things that is HUGE for like a year and then just disappears like it never happened. What do you think? Will the Blog be a one hit wonder?

(On edit: I'm not saying it is, I'm simply asking the question. Remember I have one.)

[bunkerbuster1]

1. It's like rock-and-roll.

Sure to fail, year in and year out.

[HereSince1628]

2. Blogging's had popular support for more than a year...

It may be enjoying heightened popularity now, but I think it will always be a bigger thing than Amateur Radio

People like to get their voice heard. Blogging is relatively cheap and easy.

[KurtNYC]

3. This is a revolution

Will soon be the only way to get real news in the USA (not counting going to foreign websites).

Statistics back that up. Let me see if I can grab some...

"Believability of News Outlets Over Time" - Newspapers
Declines from 80% in 1985 to around 58% today:
http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/chartland.asp?id=200&ct=col&dir=&sort=&col4_box=1

Other sources believability ranked (60 Minutes WAS the highest) :cry:

http://www.stateofthenewsmedia.org/chartland.asp?id=201&ct=sbar&dir=&sort=&col1_box=1

[Tempest]

6. Exactly. Much more than a fad

There's hundreds of millions of people world-wide who distrust their media and are looking, and found, alternative sources.

I expect blogging to go mainstream in the next couple of years. Current bloggers will get their own shows. We're already seeing bloggers showing up on the talking head shows.

[Warpy]

9. News hates a vacuum

and if we didn't have blogs, we'd be using handbills.

The MSM is simply not doing its job. If they were, most political blogs (which are really investigative journalism) would wither and die.

While we have propaganda sessions parading as press conferences going unchallenged, while the news is rolling over and playing dead, we'll have investigative journalism going on elsewhere.

[Kolesar]

20. that is a very insightful summary...eom

[Mistress Quickly]

11. I wouldn't put so much faith

in foreign websites.

Do you really think any government or corporation anywhere is going to allow a totally free media? They (big corps, governments, single evil men, whatever) control all the 'big' media, everywhere.

Its just spun towards what will works in whatever particular country state area town, where they are selling their advertising.

Advertising baby. Its all about the ad sales.

That's why you have to read a lot of news, from a lot of different sources, and glean the truth from it all.

[KurtNYC]

13. The Guardian UK, Globe and Mail

and I agree -- it is better to compare several sources

[swag]

4. I remember when my father told me

that the whole Internet thing was the CB radio of 1995.

[dave29]

5. Perhaps I will blog about this

later today. ;)

[Walt Starr]

7. I remember back in the day of 1200 baud dialup connections

The old bulletin Board systems. We used to get less than 1K UP AND DOWNSTREAM, AND WE LIKED IT!!!

Today you young whippersnappers call it "blogging" and have the fancy graphics with your broadband connections and global exposure. You can "google" your information rather than bouncing from BBS to BBS looking for a small smattering of something to research further in a library in a minute HOPE that you might be able to put 1 and 1 together to come up with 2.

Dagnabbit!

[karlrschneider]

16. I was a Fidonet addict lo these many years ago.

:D

[nostamj]

17. ah, and I remember UNIX, newsgroups...

ohmy.... the pre-PC net! and the HOURS I spent there during lobster shifts in the typesetting department.

I suppose there's still an alt.gannon.boywhore group out there somewhere!

[leveymg]

8. Why would blogs disappear next year? What do u know

that the rest of us aren't tuned into?

Ya, if DHS closed them all down . . . but, that would have to be after the start of a war, or something. Is that what you're hinting at, Caleb?

[hippiechick]

10. Yep.

The Sheeple of Murka have a very limited attention span & will tire of blogging/bloggers just as they have tired of just about every other fad over the past 70 years of culture-capitalism.

[spanone]

12. No. I think it's a beginning. A new way to keep tabs on the media et al.

[annabanana]

14. new means of communication never fade...unless the lights go out

Right from the very beginning.. New ways to communicate shook the foundations of civilization, think about it. Talking, smoke signals, printing press, telegraph, telephone.

There will always be as much communication as the technology allows.

[pearl]

15. I also think it's the beginning of the New Media

Currently trying to keep MSM honest, Blogging will do just
fine until something better comes along.

[nealzonwheelz]

18. blogs are the future!!

I beg to differ with a few people in this thread, blogs are the web news of the future, well blogs and RSS. whether it be a political blog or personal, blog's are means for everyday people to express themselves by writing their opinions online and sharing them with the world.

[BigBearJohn]

19. If anything, I think they will be expanded big time.

[nostamj]

24. yes, one day we will ALL have our own blogs....

and we'll be too busy writing our own to read anyone else's! :crazy:

[Kolesar]

21. Here come the republicans to take it over

I am afraid that the republicans will find a way to dump huge amounts of money into blog sites and thus become the only sites that are cited. Sort of like the way the gop created these gop-advocacy sites masquerading as academic think-tanks such as Heritage, AEI, Cato, etc.

[LdyGuique]

22. People have been writing journals and diaries for centuries

Blogging serves many different purposes -- it ranges from highly simplistic and personal, an ongoing diary for many, to those that focus on weightier, more expert, topics. Some simply gather snippes of news they think would be missed if readers were left to their own devices and others add invaluable commentary with the dish-up of articles.

Right now, because Media has abandoned its duties of a free press that scrutinizes governments, large and small, to being primarily entertainment for the unthinking, blogs have risen to become watchdogs, spanning the spectrum from extreme to extreme. This will be likely to continue even if the major Media reassumes its lost dedication, as the spectrum of opinion will continue to vary, based on the individual's worldview.

Blogs are a creative outlet for many. I think it's going to continue to revive the art of writing and allow one to publish without writing a book and attempting to get that published.

Forums, such as DU, are more akin to the original Bulletin Boards or the Usenet Newsgroups, where many are allowed to join in and develop discussions with everything from minor to major postings. The culture of the particular forum determines how much it is controlled and whether or not full articles from elsewhere are posted for comments, such as SmirkingChimp, or simply a minor amount of comment with a link to the article, such as here at DU.

I think that blogs are here to stay as a major influence as there are many people who are able to articulate through writing what is repressed or suppressed through face-to-face conversations. Many bloggers are more in the loner category socially in that it's difficult to find kindred spirits in the relatively small groups of people we come in contact with. With the entire world at one's disposal, it's far easier to find a compatible group of people with whom one can exchange a range of ideas.

[Minstrel Boy]

23. If writing is a fad

then yes.

[Ironpost]

25. Don't think I could go back to the tele or radio.

and the local paper is trash to.

[sendero]

26. I dont agree..

... yes, there is already a surplus of blogs, and over time most of the low-quality vanity blogs will go away.

But the concept, and the availability of the better blogs, is here to stay because they fulfill a need.

And the more the networks carp about them, the more reader they will attract.

[hangemhigh]

27. Corporate Media will treat it as a fad-

until it is widely recognized (as it is becoming) as the last frontier of free speech and free press in Chimp's Murika.

[Igel]

28. I think a lot of blogs will go away; they're usually run by a few

people and their quality depends on the quality of those few people.

So I think in a couple of years a lot will either have to go commercial or will go away. A small number of new ones will always be springing up.

But otherwise, it's like VCRs and cassette tapes. They'll hang in there until something better comes along.

Barring some kind of major restriction on electricity use.

[CalebHayes]

29. I can tell you that most blogs are really just personal jornals...

that kids are using. They write in them once or twice a week and their friends read them. Thats it. Real news blogs may live but I think the popularity is going to peak in 6 months or so.