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Or, more specifically, the Blogosphere -- a land where the smart get smarter, the connected get even more connected, and the losers go home. The Godfather here is Nick Denton, owner of Gawker Media, a top-tier blog conglomerate named for its flagship, Gawker.com. Launched in January 2003, with Elizabeth Spiers as editor, Gawker made its name by skewering New York media culture -- What are the funny signs up in the bathroom at Condé Nast, the publishing conglomerate that puts out glamorous magazines like Vogue, Vanity Fair, and GQ? Who was spotted going into the Condé Nast building wearing something awful? -- but Spiers lost her indie cred when she moved on to the New York magazine-owned The Kicker and started blogg ing about how she parties with the very people she used to skewer. Other sites under the Gawker umbrella are Wonkette.com (Gawker for D.C.), Gizmodo.com (Gawker for technogeeks), and Fleshbot.com (Gawker for porn).
A step down from Denton's cabal are countless blogs independently run by people sitting in their bedrooms. Here you're less likely to find breaking news about media culture, but you will learn a lot about the drinking patterns of articulate twentysomethings. They're all friends, the bloggers on this level, and they're in a constant state of link-swapping, making it possible to actually click through the Web in a giant circle all day, like Tigger bouncing through the Hundred Acre Wood.
I don't know all of this because I am a blogger. I know it because my friends are, and now everything is bad. And while a lot has been made of the cultural implications of the Blogosphere, I am not convinced that anyone has taken the time to talk openly and honestly about the effects it is having on the day-to-day existence of the world's adult non-bloggers, or what I like to call How Blogs Are Ruining My Life.
1. No one shows up for anything anymore.
There was an innocent time, about a year ago, when I was concerned that the Evite was going to be the death of polite society. But we now live in a world where it is unnecessary for people to attend any social functions whatsoever, so long as they are bloggers. For example: Let's say that I occasionally perform at literary events. I invite my friends to these events, hoping for affirmation and free drinks. How heartbreaking, then, when no one arrives! Phone calls are made: I am sad that you did not come to my event! The bloggers reply, invariably: But I linked to you on my blog! That's just the same as if I showed up in person!
It is not. It is very different.
2. No one tells me anything anymore.
There was a time when my friends and I got together to chat about our lives, a time when any problem could be resolved in the warm light of camaraderie and beer. And then my friends became bloggers. These days, I don't even hear about the stupid stuff that's going on -- "I got a haircut" or "My apartment burned down" -- because the bloggers assume that I have read about it on their blogs.
3. No one has fights anymore.
If there's been a falling-out with my friends, I rarely find out what I did or get a chance to fix things. I just wake up in the morning to find that they are no longer linking to, say, my barely solvent literary magazine. (And then my world allegedly crumbles.)
4. No one invites me to anything anymore.
Bloggers are starting to have parties to which they invite only other bloggers. Secretly, and for research purposes only, I attended one of these parties, a pretty progressive one, as there were four or five of the blog-free in attendance (all of whom admitted, however, to being on Friendster, which is basically a gateway drug). Yet despite this initial multiculturalism, the room immediately broke down according to Blogospheric lines -- conversation centered on issues of blogs and blogging, and about half an hour in, the bloggers stood up and left en masse. Those who remained -- non-bloggers and the party's gracious host -- were left to quietly wonder what they'd done wrong, and worry.
5. They have created a new world order.
My society, that of the media-obsessed mid to late twentysomething, is being divided into a caste system that I believe will soon have the power to control virtually every facet of offline life.
In order of fabulosity, the Blogging Caste System (BCS):
6. Did I mention that blogs are ruining my life?
I am no longer getting work done. I am not sleeping enough or eating enough or editing my barely solvent literary magazine because the aforementioned issues have made it a social imperative that I check up on all the goddamn blogs every single day (and post comments) so that people know I care about their lives/band/Condé Nast.
Additionally, I must Google my own name every week in search of mentions on blogs, in order to know What People Think About Me. This is a dark enterprise, capable of destroying even the staunchest feelings of self-confidence if the search should turn up evidence that, say, someone who actually showed up at my literary event did not enjoy it, or that someone has posted incriminating pictures of me, pictures obviously taken by a cell phone when I wasn't looking. (Remember: It isn't paranoia if they really are blogging about you.)
Listen. My name is Whitney Pastorek, and I do not have a blog. I am not on Friendster, I do not live in Williamsburg, and I do not think Death Cab for Cutie is a particularly great band.
But I exist. I am a good person, a good friend, and my thoughts and opinions have weight and merit. The bloggers do not control me -- they only control each other and massive amounts of bandwidth, which isn't even a real thing, just something made up by Web-hosting companies to charge more! People! If you find yourself on the lower levels of the BCS, join with me in saying NO! NO to letting them diminish our self-worth! NO to letting them drag us out to flash mobs! Turn your faces to the sun! Stand and fight!
Whitney Pastorek is the editor of Pindeldyboz (www.pindeldyboz.com), a barely solvent literary magazine based in Astoria, Queens, that, according to its Web site, has the following aspirations: "The goal of at least one of the editors is to develop Pindeldyboz into an imprint at one of America's large and fine publishing houses, and thus be able to select and publish novel-length works while maintaining the grassroots nature of this publication. An alternative would be an enormous monetary gift from a wealthy benefactor, which would allow all of that to happen, but without the corporate oppression. If anyone has a lead on either of these pipe dreams, please let us know immediately." Reprinted from The Village Voice (Feb. 25, 2004). Subscriptions: $99/yr. (52 issues) from Box 3000, Denville, NJ 07834; www.villagevoice.com
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Listen to Episode No. 179 of Live at Politics and Prose:
You can also watch a video of this talk or view a playlist of videos from other readings that have featured in this podcast feed.
Podcast production by Tom Warren.
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We will send the script to your PayPal email within few hours,Please add FullContentRSS@gmail.com to your email contact.Law blogging has come a long way in the last fifteen years. Not all of it has been all good.
Real lawyers engaging on real subjects in an authentic fashion, for many lawyers and law firms, has gone the way of content marketing sold as a billboard by web development companies.
Rather than contributing to discussion on the law and making a sincere effort to make the law more digestible for average folks, we have lawyers buying content from marketers to slap on a website with the only goal being search engine traffic.
My friend, Scott Greenfield, a New York criminal defense lawyer and long time blogger at Simple Justice, is right that blogging takes effort and desire.
Most people just don't have the chops or interest in doing it. Some suck at it. Some aren't nearly as fascinating as they think they are.
Furthermore, law blogging takes being authentic, having a face, being real. In the absence of being real and putting in the effort, lawyers "buy content from Bangalore or walk away," as Greenfield puts it.
He's right. Talking with legal journalist and blogger, Bob Ambrogi, last week, he asked me what I thought the number one reason was for lawyers to stop blogging. Without a doubt, it's because the lawyers don't know what blogging is, or if they do, they won't do it.
A month or two ago, I announced donuts.lexblog.com, a blog where my team and I can share open, honest and authentic thoughts on what we're learning and thinking. God knows a LexBlog website with slick phrases, pictures, colors, testimonials and the like doesn't do a thing to let lawyers and law firms know who we really are.
I'd hope lawyers trying cases, guiding companies and handling the affairs of the wealthy to the downtrodden would want more. Maybe a company whose story is told on an ongoing basis by the people who work about what they are reading, learning, thinking and doing.
Greenfield's correct that I haven't given up on telling lawyers about the virtues of blogging. Engaging in niche discussions so as to get known and build relationships is just too darn good when it comes to being a real lawyer. Making a good living by virtue of who you are, versus the color of our website and the words we bought, is the stuff we went to law school for.
Add to this that real blogging lawyers make the law and lawyers more accessible.
Any lawyer who's tried cases knows that jurors aren't dumb. Give them some straight talk and good information from witnesses they can trust. You may stumble and be unpolished at times, so long as you're honest, sincere and authentic. They'll figure it out, despite the glitz and glamour thrown at them by the lawyers hiding the truth.
Blogging lawyers who share what they're reading and offer their take on a regular basis give consumers, business people, other lawyers and the media a view inside the law. A view these folks don't get from a book or mainstream media. They sure as heck don't get a glimpse of the law from some words sold to a lawyer.
Lawyers become accessible when people trust them. Give people this window into who they can trust as a lawyer. Real blogging does this.
I don't know, maybe I am just giving myself a "you can do it" talk before I take to the streets to try to convince more lawyers to do some real blogging. But I'll take the bone that Greenfield threw me.
I hope Kevin's onto something. I suspect people will tire of cute and insipid quips and will return to the days when actual thought and illuminating commentary were available online. It's time for a fourth wave of blogging where real lawyers write about real stuff for real. But it won't be all donuts.
I can run hit the streets with this "fourth wave of blogging," Scott. Stayed tuned in 2018.
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