Well, this is sure to offend somebody, so my disclaimer is that it is not my desire to offend, only to observe. I never really read blogs regularly until last year about this time, during the presidential campaign. News was fast and furious, and I loved the instant analysis/opinions etc. I was hooked after several blogs took down Dan Rather's fake Texas Air National Guard memos. I knew that a new media world was upon us, that power had been wrenched from the powerful.
Of course, the number of blogs by normal people like you and I has exploded over this last year. With so many people trying to think of clever titles for their sites, there are bound to be redundancies. This leads to my question: When did we as Americans start to do so much darn musing? As I look over titles of blogs, I think "musing" comes up more than any other, right in front of "random" (sorry Becky), "rantings" and "notes" (sorry Erich). I'm not denigrating anyone who uses these words. They're all fine words, good words, words rife with meaning. It's just that I never heard much about "musing" before blogging came en vogue.
Me: "Hey, what are you doing."
You: "Oh, just musing."
Me: "Cool. Muse away."
You:
Me:
You:
Me: "Anything?"
You: "Nope, still musing."
I find it interesting.
My second observation is this. When did seemingly normal people start to think of themselves as lunatics or relatively unstable. You've seen them. "Ravings of a Certified Crazy Person", or "Stark. Raving. Mad." It's not socially acceptable to publicly identify yourself as a little off your rocker, so why is it cool to be nuts in the online publishing world?
Anyone? Feel free to muse about it in the comments. But take your prozac first, please.
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4 comments:
Phil, this post was very humorous!
Are you really asking us to muse? Well, in any case I shall do so...Hmmmm...My puzzled ponderings have led me to the following winding wonderings regarding titles such as "Rantings," "Ravings of a Certified Crazy Person", "Stark. Raving. Mad." and the like:
They evoke thoughts of WWF television SmackDowns and such, the appeal of which I have never understood. Apparently this type of WILD & CRAZY IN YOUR FACE! stuff catches people's attention.
Also, I could be off my rocker, but I think they're used as a sort of disclaimer - something to fall back on when one isn't consistent or doesn't make sense.
As for me, I am just an innocent little wild violet. :-)
Indeed, Dawn, I think you hit the nail on the head. My theory is two-fold.
1. The name is a pre-apology/self-humiliating attempt at shielding oneself from criticism. A majority of people should be a little self-concious about posting their thoughts publicly. It's a very vulnerable process. Deep down inside, we are certain that what we're saying is uninteresting or stupid, so by having a name/disclaimer that says "I'm a freak!", we think we're beating others to the punch, and thus diminishing the hurt when they really do say that.
2. An alternative theory goes to the heart of the anonymity the internet provides. People that are in fact, dull, or feel that their lives are boring, can revel in the fact that they can create their own identity, therefore they become what they've often wanted to be viewed as...namely, a little edgy, creative, unique, etc.
I really wasn't intending to wax philosophical about this very unimportant topic, but you know me. I'm a WILD AND CRAZY GUY! YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT I'M GONNA DO!!!! I'M THE BLOGGER YOUR MAMA WARNED YOU ABOUT!!!!
Erich, yours is exempt from my diatribe, since it has purpose and an explainable context. The basement reference is particularly apt. I just noticed a lot of people use the word "notes". I guess they haven't discovered the online thesaurus.
My name came from my refusal to make my blog about anything consistent for any length of time - hence the random. i don't muse - except to my cats when I'm cooking dinner and Shadow is sitting on the table or prowling underfoot.
I wanted a place where I could talk about things that interested me, that excited me, that scared me, that pissed me off, or things that made me think. Given the alternative of having THAT as a title, I went with "Random thoughts from the Coast" - also as a way of braggig about the fact that I live less than a mile away from the gulf coast.
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