Comments on: I, said the Fly

By: Is blogging dead? Hell, it only just got started | Creative Agency Secrets

Is blogging dead? Hell, it only just got started | Creative Agency Secrets — Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:13:27 +0000

[...] was reading JP on the supposed death of [...]

By: Brendan

Brendan — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 20:56:37 +0000

All I have to say is this:
http://spap-oop.blogspot.com/2008/10/can-twitter-flickr-and-facebook-replace.html

By: Ryan Sprute

Ryan Sprute — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 09:52:10 +0000

That’s a good point. I think I just disagreed so strongly with some of the ideas of the book that it is clouding analysis of his other work.

Also to clarify, I meant inadvertently. I don’t mean to suggest the Carr is overtly trying to get a reaction.

By: JP

JP — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 11:39:28 +0000

Ryan, I’m not sure what we’re “disagreeing” about. I don’t always agree with him. More often than not I disagree. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t read him or that I won’t learn from him.

The matteringness of IT, the behaviour of attention spans, the cloud and its implications, the changing nature of the blogosphere, each of these are important issues. In each case the things he says that are right get obscured by the ones that he gets wrong.

I get things wrong regularly as well, probably more often than Carr. But then the blogosphere comes back to teach me. Which is what it’s all about.

Inadvertently or advertently, as you say, Carr seems to get involved in exercises weakened by false consensus cognitive bias. While that suggests a tendency towards trolling, there are many more out there who are overt trollers; I rarely read them, and I never link to them.

By: Ryan Sprute

Ryan Sprute — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 10:55:43 +0000

I would have to disagree with you about Nicholas Carr. I haven’t been a subscriber to his blog, but the stuff I have read from him (notably the article that came out before his book the “Big Switch”) all seems to be an exercise in identifying the “false consensus” cognitive bias.
- People’s attention spans shortening? Spurred by a conversation with one friend. I could make the argument that the internet has helped me grow my attention span by a large margin
- Death of blogs? Like you said, it’s increasingly moved to microblogging – but that’s for people who aren’t really cut out/have time for traditional blogging. Look at Tumblr! It’s spurned a whole community around blogging, and for the most part it’s well out of the reach of MSM. Look at the Rudius Media websites, all personal blogs of high quality.
- He might be correct about the tight-knit blogosphere, but that’s because it’s increasingly been subdivided into more and more small communities instead of one umbrella called the “blogosphere”. The blogosphere is still alive and well, it’s just so much bigger than it used to be.

By: alan p

alan p — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:56:21 +0000

You know, just after I wrote the comment above, I had this vision of us individual bloggers being like all those “intellectuals” (in inverted commas) frequenting the Cafes of Paris, drinking absinthe and plotting seduction, sedition etc – Le Blog Epoque ;-)

By: alan p

alan p — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 07:32:29 +0000

Re: Microblogging – I’ve got into the habit of “centoblogging” on my blog on things that interest me in the passing parade – ie a paragraph or two on a single idea or subject – a quick sketch, if you like. Looks like you have as well.

I just don’t have Big Ideas – and/or the time to really write longer essays – more than once a week or so, but there are always fascinating things going on, and I use these “centoblogs” as away of marking them.

And like you, my RSS reader is full of people who interest me, rather than the Mainstream Blogs.

As to the death of blogs, like you I hadn’t noticed – but then thats because the blog is clearly dead and I am a Blogging Zombie :)