As a college girl and card carrying member of the
millennial generation, reading blogs is right up my alley. Like my peers,
especially those at a competitive top twenty school, I value my own time above
everyone else’s (for better or worse…probably worse) so I enjoy the easily
digestible, sound bite, quick draw McGraw format that’s used in most successful
blogs. In reading the Huffington Post’s
Guide to Blogging, I was compelled by the bevy of information about blogs at
my fingertips, most which I had never really considered at length – from
creating buzz to finding a voice. (The history of the Huffington Post was
interesting but I didn’t quite make the connection with how that would help my
blog… again with the me thing?! I think there might be more where that came
from.)
While simultaneously considering all the advice about
blogs, though, I felt a distinct sense of “Well, duh.” Growing up with my
fingers usually at a keyboard and not a book, I could tell that the Huffington Post Guide’s goal was to patiently, albeit wittily, explain the
ins an outs of blogs to someone unfamiliar with this crucial form of media. I
know what makes a blog successful, because I’ve grown up following them. To me,
this is the “traditional form of media”, not the hour-long news specials and
newspapers and ye olde taverns of precious generations. Perhaps me giving a slight cold
shoulder to the explanations of the Huffington
Post Guide is just the narcissism that has sneaked and streaked its way
across my generation and college campus, but at the very least, I am
self-aware. I (we) read blogs because they are fast, passionate, and to some
extent, very self-centered – just like us.
Needless to say, I was happy to put down the book that
told me how it was done, and get started on the blogs that made it happen.
Andrew Sullivan on TheDailyBeast.com: The most appealing
to me of the blogs, Sullivan writes with a quick wit and an on a variety of
topics that keep my generational ADD satisfied. I very much appreciate his
tendency to include quotes and opinions from his readers, a refreshing addition
to the blogosphere. Sullivan’s usage of photos and videos add color to his
already vivid writing. I particularly enjoyed his live-blogging of the RNC and
DNC in the past few weeks. The only way to remain relevant in such a vast
network of reporting is to sometimes go minute by minute and I found his
commentary brief and enlightening. Finally, not in terms of writing, but in
terms of perspective and ideology, Sullivan’s conservatism is refreshing for my
generation that is progressive on social issues.
Gizmodo.com: I also have very much enjoyed reading Gizmodo, much to my
surprise. Even though I grew up in a technologically saturated world, I know
that there are those out there who would surgically attach their electronic
devices to their bodies if they knew said device probably wouldn’t be obsolete
in .5 seconds. I am not all up on the tech jargon, nor do I really care to be.
However, Gizmodo provides a great balance between the tech-sissy, the
tech-savvy, and the tech-sassy (Some of the comments from the tech community
can get very heated! Perhaps we should add technology to the American
religion-politics taboo.) The
balanced writing and knowledge of the broad audience reflects some of the ideas
in On Writing Well. All in all, the variety of formats keeps
the site fresh (“What to Buy in September” was a list, “Is it bad to shut down
my computer regularly?” was a question and answer piece, and “Lenovo X1 Carbon:
Holy Crap” was a review) and the endless number of fascinating topics is enough
to think even my grandfather (“What’s MyFace?!”) might want to check out
Gizmodo.
Well Blog on NYTimes.com: Again, a variety of topics based on a
general theme makes a strong selling point to my distracted friends. “Ooh, rare
infections!” “Aah, organic food!” The headline fireworks notwithstanding, the
simple, recognizable format of the NYTimes.com blog page creates a navigable
page for maximum clicking. While the headlines were often attention-grabbing in
typical journalistic fashion, I often found myself missing the snark of Andrew
Sullivan and the writers of Gizmodo when reading the Well Blog. It is extremely
informative – highly valued in a time of information and misinformation
overload – but it can often read a little dry. The Huffington Post Guide suggests writing like you speak, and, if some
of the writers of the Well Blog are in fact embodying that lesson, I’d think
twice about inviting them to a dinner party.
Howard Fineman on the HuffingtonPost.com: After looking forward to
reading one of the bloggers who wrote for the site who literally wrote the book
on blogging, I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. While I very much
enjoyed the writing of Fineman, particularly “The Man Who is Obama’s Problem,”
an excellent profile of a man he sat next to on a plane, I was hoping for more
timely posts, and a bit more multimedia integration. Sullivan can go back and
forth on topics, live blogs, photos and videos, while Fineman seems more
structured and deliberate in his writing. In my opinion, Fineman often displays
stronger writing chops, but in the blogosphere, that isn’t the only piece in
the puzzle.
David Roberts on Grist.org: Again, I thought that David
Roberts may have missed the “blog often” memo from the Huffington Post Guide. With just five blogs since August 14, I feel
like he might not have his finger on the pulse as much as the other blogs. He
also writes extremely long blogs, which could indicate why there is so much time
between them. I enjoyed his piece on post-truth politics, but it was so long
that I had gone back to Gizmodo.com and hit refresh to see if there was
anything new to read.
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