On the ever present tendency for bloggers (of the A-List variety in particular) to gravitate towards cliques, self-importance and fatuousness: it’s a little too cozy in the blogosphere:
What began as the ultimate outsider activity — a way to break the newspaper and TV stranglehold on the gathering and dissemination of information — is turning into the same insider’s game played by the old establishment media the bloggerati love to critique. The more blogs you read and the more often you read them, the more obvious it is: They’ve fallen in love with themselves, each other and the beauty of what they’re creating. The cult of media celebrity hasn’t been broken by the Internet’s democratic tendencies; it’s just found new enabling technology.
Absolute sure symbol of this mass delusion of self-importance: conferences about blogging where the attendees are bloggers themeselve who blog while attending said conferences. What’s old becomes new again thanks to technology or another disintermediation myth thankfully shattered.
I see blogs for what they are for me: a fun, creative, but ultimately self-indulgent and narcisistic exercise where we entertain our most fundamental human need for group acceptance. If you really don’t want people’s attention, why bother putting it online when you can keep it in the Hello Kitty diary?
