Blogging With A Brain
Blogs are, theoretically, webjournals, little public diaries created by the early 21st century’s need for public exhibition. At a time where celebrities are the new messiahs, blogging makes perfect sense, to the point where the idea of scrutinizing the ridiculous minutia of everyone else’s lives is defended even by the New York Times.
Recently, I was having an interesting conversation with my friend Jay about the need for new terminology. I’ve always (pretentiously) considered my blog to be a medium for expressing my opinions on various subjects, and not a vent for existential angst or boring shit about my own life.
In my secret fantasies, my posts are (as this one should be) essays on themes which may (or may not) be interesting to my readers.
In that spirit, it is clear we need a new word to define online writing that makes use of blogging technology for other purposes. Magazine is a bit too pretentious, even for me, and Column is a bit too newspapery/formal.
Maybe a handy little acronym would serve us right, like BEEP, short for Blogging Experience for Essay Publishing. I’m beeping right now from Brazil. I try to beep every day, and I hope everyone enjoys my beeps.
Anyone got a better one?
