Here we go again
I’m starting to find tumblelogs vs. long-form weblogging arguments starting to crop up. I’m not going to link to any of it (inhibiting the power of this medium by not doing so, I know) because in Internet Years, I am getting on towards my old and crotchety phase, and honestly I’ve seen this all before. Anyone here remember Ben Brown’s essay on 3000 words? Yes? No? Okay, go look around, I can wait. You’ll find references to it, mostly, but read around and you’ll get the idea.
Here’s the longer yet pedantic version: Once upon a time, a certain type of website called a weblog cropped up. Some people argue that Robot Wisdom was the first of this kind, some argue against that. It’s almost certain that “web log” was first used by Jorn Barger, maintainer of Robot Wisdom, and the word “blog” was coined by accident by Peter Merholz, who I think was just trying to be funny. Instead it stuck. Whoops!
Soon a few hundred people or so were maintaining weblogs, and they were mostly annotated links: A sentence or two, or maybe a paragraph, that included the link and a little bit of commentary from the weblogger’s point of view. Webloggers would also, seemingly incestuously, link back to one another, but this was probably a good thing because people knew to weblogs would quickly see what all was out there.
At some point in 2000, a guy named Ben Brown wrote a piece where he lamented the fact that all these seemingly creative people were fritting away their energy in the short form when they could be writing in the longer form. Whether or not he was actually serious, or merely trying to provoke people, I can’t recall. Some webloggers took it to heart and started writing longer posts on a regular basis. Some people tried and found that they couldn’t keep it up, and so stopped weblogging. Meanwhile, another group of web writers that could be grouped together as journalers, and who were already writing personal accounts of their lives in the long form, looked upon the webloggers and didn’t know what the big deal was. Another group, who had dubbed their sites E/N (which stood for Everything/Nothing, by some accounts), also reacted with, “Whatever.”
Anyway, it’s arguable if Brown’s essay was pivotal in pushing weblogging more towards the long form it’s associated with today, but it’s the event that sticks out in my mind. And it wasn’t a bad thing; lots of people got their writing chops on and became clearer writers because of it.
I bring this all up because the arguments that are showing up now—long-form writing exposes more of the author and is then more compelling, link-dumps aren’t interesting to read… versus tumblelogs reveal something about the author by dint of it being a collection of things the tumblelogger is saying “these are cool,” and long-form writing only being as revealing, and potentially deceiving, as much as the author wishes to put themselves in there—are pretty much exactly the same arguments we had seven years ago. Just swap out “tumblelogs” and “weblogs” with “weblogs” and “essays” and suddenly it feels to me like 2000.
I agree that tumblelogs do reveal something about their creators. Look at mine: I haven’t written very much in a personal sense, but if you’ve followed along long enough, you’ll probably have figured out where I work and what I do for them; that I both love and produce lo-fi photography; that I play World of Warcraft… but not seriously, and that I’m more interested in the whimsical aspects and culture around it; that I’m gay and I celebrate gay culture; that I tend to keep an eye on the media for stereotypes regarding race, gender and sexuality; that I lean left politically; that I lean pirate in the pirate/ninja spectrum; that I’m interested in things technical; and that I love weird random stuff on the Internet, of which there is plenty. Also, you’ve picked up by now that I have a dubious grasp of the semicolon.
At this point in time, tumblelogging feels a lot like what old-school webloggers did years ago. We’re sharing links and other content (our own and other people’s) with one another, we’re pointing outward instead of inward. And lots of it is trivial, but is that a big deal? It’s fun, isn’t it? Does everything have to be a step in our education, or brain-expanding moment? Nah.
And just because I keep a tumblelog doesn’t mean I hate weblogs. I read both. And for years I kept a long-form weblog on and off. I just don’t have the time anymore to sit down and write that much, that often. Also I feel like I’ve written a lot of what I wanted to say. Additionally, the climate in which I used to fearlessly put parts of myself out there has changed over time, and it’s changed into something less hospitable, so I’m wary of doing so now. Who knows, maybe in ten years I’ll go back to it.
I disparage against the idea that long-form weblogs are inherently superior, because that assumes that everyone writing in such a manner is being 100% honest with you and totally candid, and you will get to know them by reading their weblog. While there are authors like that, there are other authors who bend truth, or that aren’t aware that they’re ignorant of the truth, or who are pompous windbags, or who are holding back a lot… and you don’t really get to know them at all. There’s been too many people whose weblogs I had been reading, and then I met them in person, and got the idea that their weblog was just so much marketing. It’s a downer.
Oh, but my weblog isn’t like that, you say. My weblog is awesome, you say. Alright, fine. You know what, my tumblelog is awesome! Let’s have a fight!
No, let’s not. How about we just say, “hey, I thought about it, and method X isn’t for me right now, I’m going to put stuff out there with method Y.” And just because you like Y doesn’t mean that X is going to be the downfall of civilization or whatever less-exaggerated stance people are taking. You may change your mind some day anyway. For example, while Ben Brown still keeps a weblog, he also has a Tumblr account. And also, it’s not X or Y. There’s tons of other options out there for self-expression or content sharing online. It’s not a binary choice.
People overthink these things, and have been for years. And now I’m overthinking it, criminy. Now I have to go find something frivolous on YouTube to feel better.
