The Globe & Mail ran an article yesterday about Communication professor turned author-cum-blogcritic Michael Keren who is drumming up publicity for his new book by claiming that bloggers are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world:
Bloggers think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills
It is patently ridiculous to attempt to paint 3,900,000 people with the same brush. Perhaps Mr. Keren has not heard of blogging as reflective practice? There are very few people who “blog” anywhere close to full time. Of those who do, very few work at it 40, 50 or 60 hours a week, as is common in many other jobs.
I don’t consider my situation to be unusual or special in any way – I am not a “blog celebrity” by any stretch of the imagination, but specifically because of my (and Jenn‘s) “pointless self-expression” online, I have met several very cool people that I go to the pub with, have dinner with, moved to the UK for Jenn to work with, and generally have a richer life because of.
To say that I am lonely and isolated simply because I have not reach some level of blog superstardom sounds to me more like sour grapes over a particular author’s failed blog attempts…
[via Smart Mobs]