My blog isn't Infantile, it's just juvenile.
"My blog isn't infantile, just juvenile", so declares the Calm One, in response to Steve McDemott's tirade on how Singapore's blogosphere is still rather infantile. His basis for that absurd claim? That Singaporean bloggers do not write about serious stuff enough. Initially I found myself gravitating towards his point of view, but after a while, I realized that Steve has been rather myopic is his perception of a blog and what it should accomplish.
Generally speaking, a blog, in simplest words, is just an online journal for you to write about anything under the sun. A web log, I surmise, is simply a personal website with dated entries. Dated entries don't exactly that a blog has to be an online diary, though that is one viable purpose of maintaining a blog.
Today I shall describe the various kinds of blogs that exist and some opinions on them.
In general, most blogs ARE indeed maintained and treated like an online journal. For many of these bloggers who do treat theri blogs like online diaries, they are angry, cynical, often hedonistic teenagers that tend to go on and on about bad bf/gfs, bad friends/being backstabbed/irritating parents/curfews/that cute guy/ger they saw on the bus. In short, these blogs shouldn't be read by anyone other than their friends, and often they are not. Unless of course, you have fantastic photoshopping skills and a face on your blog that most of the uber-geeky bloggers out there will find pretty. Then you will hit astronomical readership. A sample of a typical gina blog:
SiaaNzZ la! ToDaY I saW thAt JoHn Ar, fLiRtInG wItH thAt SLuTTisH ZhuZhU! I WanTeD to Go Up and SLaaRP His Face! SOoOoOoO IrrItaTinG Man! WhY of All PeoPle He MusT TaLK to ThAt QUeeN BiTcH! ArGhHhH ! I NeeD To Go SHoPPinG To ReLIeVe StReSs! Oh Ya! ThAt DaY I Saw ThIs DaMn Chio Gucci/Prada/Ferragamo/Hermes/Raymond Kidman Tan bag At ThaT BouTiQuE Can! But Hor, MumMy SaY OnlY AduLtS can CaRrY SuCh BaGs One. TeeNaGeRs MusT OnLy Carry OP, RipCuRL or BillaBonG! So I wAnT to Be DiFFeReNt, So I cArRy HELLO KITTY BAG! YaY! I LoVe My LiTTle HeLLo KiTTy!
Basically, 1 paragraph into such a post and you will get pissed off as hell. You don't even have to read it, the look of it is so terrible it irks you to no end.
Then there are the bi-polar opposites from such bloggers. They are the 'serious' bloggers and they pride themselves so much in that, I wonder if they have a life sometimes. They deal with 'serious' issues like politics and the economy, which is important, but their blog is so painfully unfunny and such an utter bore to read I conclude that the only people who bother reading those blogs must be the Uber geek elites. You know, the first to rush down to a bookstore sale, or the kind to hit on librarians. Some of these 'serious' bloggers forget that if what qualifies a blog as a 'mature' blog is the subject nature of the themes tackled, that most blogs would be dubbed frivolous and unnecessary. As for 'serious' blogs, I think we're having an overdose of those. What these often frail-egoed bloggers need is that much needed internship with Newsweek or BusinessTimes. I'm not saying for all in general, a couple of them are really really good, like Wannabe Lawyer. But the truckloads of people jumping on the political blog bandwagon is disturbingly symptomatic of a conformist nation, which is ironic because these blogs rant about how our nation espouses conformity and regulation, but they themselves are unwittingly part of the things they gripe about.
Anyway, I will try my best to gives you a short mock excerpt of a 'serious' blog. Sentences are often drafted into the most formal, albeit somewhat pretentious, manner. Eg:
Despite the impressive growth rates in the region, there are some serious questions about the policies and institutions in the high performing East Asian economies. Indeed, several of the traditional institutions can be expected to impose a binding constraint upon the continuation of the rapid economic growth in Singapore and in other countries in the region.
In particular, many of these institutions militate against individuality and individual rights and freedoms. In turn, "authoritarian capitalism" describes the operational elements of this particular development model. On one hand, authoritarian-capitalist regimes place a limited and selective set of persistent policy interventions into market activities. On the other hand, these same regimes impose heavy restrictions on political activity. Whereas, Soviet economies contrived to have an economy without prices, authoritarian capitalism presides over markets without the guarantee of individual freedoms or rights. As a result, there are conflicting and misleading signals about a relatively free economy whereas political freedoms are repressed within an authoritarian- based government. Singapore's single-party regime offers a model of authoritarian capitalism that may be followed by other single-party regimes in the region.
Sometimes, an overdose of these blogs can just turn you into one humourless square-pack.
Then there are the confused ones. The ones that try to be funny, and yet objective. Try to be personal, and yet indifferent. Some succeed, like Mr Brown , others fail miserably. Since I am a perfectly sane person, I am unable to come out with examples of such insipid posts of these confused bloggers.
Last but not least there are the angry bloggers. We all know these kinds. There are the classy kinds and the uncouth kinds that cheapen vulgarities.
nab**! ( can't say it out. Marilyn and Raymond has banned me from all expletives) c***c***b**! Why like that! Why are the kids on those buses so noisy? those f***tards, inconsiderate pieces of trash, causing undue noise pollution to all us commuters. can't those parents just inject some sedatives into their frigging bloodstream to shut them up? What is society coming to? Parents just allow their kids to make all sorts of unwelcome noises on the bus as if it belonged to them. What the f***? These parents should be crucified and stoned man. Talk about the exacerbation of moral values! Inconsiderate people are rampant in our society nowadays.
So you seem, very common right?
If you want some really good blogs where the bloggers have a strong persona and a clear identity of their what their blog is, do visit my kick-a** links on the right. Out.
Generally speaking, a blog, in simplest words, is just an online journal for you to write about anything under the sun. A web log, I surmise, is simply a personal website with dated entries. Dated entries don't exactly that a blog has to be an online diary, though that is one viable purpose of maintaining a blog.
Today I shall describe the various kinds of blogs that exist and some opinions on them.
In general, most blogs ARE indeed maintained and treated like an online journal. For many of these bloggers who do treat theri blogs like online diaries, they are angry, cynical, often hedonistic teenagers that tend to go on and on about bad bf/gfs, bad friends/being backstabbed/irritating parents/curfews/that cute guy/ger they saw on the bus. In short, these blogs shouldn't be read by anyone other than their friends, and often they are not. Unless of course, you have fantastic photoshopping skills and a face on your blog that most of the uber-geeky bloggers out there will find pretty. Then you will hit astronomical readership. A sample of a typical gina blog:
SiaaNzZ la! ToDaY I saW thAt JoHn Ar, fLiRtInG wItH thAt SLuTTisH ZhuZhU! I WanTeD to Go Up and SLaaRP His Face! SOoOoOoO IrrItaTinG Man! WhY of All PeoPle He MusT TaLK to ThAt QUeeN BiTcH! ArGhHhH ! I NeeD To Go SHoPPinG To ReLIeVe StReSs! Oh Ya! ThAt DaY I Saw ThIs DaMn Chio Gucci/Prada/Ferragamo/Hermes/Raymond Kidman Tan bag At ThaT BouTiQuE Can! But Hor, MumMy SaY OnlY AduLtS can CaRrY SuCh BaGs One. TeeNaGeRs MusT OnLy Carry OP, RipCuRL or BillaBonG! So I wAnT to Be DiFFeReNt, So I cArRy HELLO KITTY BAG! YaY! I LoVe My LiTTle HeLLo KiTTy!
Basically, 1 paragraph into such a post and you will get pissed off as hell. You don't even have to read it, the look of it is so terrible it irks you to no end.
Then there are the bi-polar opposites from such bloggers. They are the 'serious' bloggers and they pride themselves so much in that, I wonder if they have a life sometimes. They deal with 'serious' issues like politics and the economy, which is important, but their blog is so painfully unfunny and such an utter bore to read I conclude that the only people who bother reading those blogs must be the Uber geek elites. You know, the first to rush down to a bookstore sale, or the kind to hit on librarians. Some of these 'serious' bloggers forget that if what qualifies a blog as a 'mature' blog is the subject nature of the themes tackled, that most blogs would be dubbed frivolous and unnecessary. As for 'serious' blogs, I think we're having an overdose of those. What these often frail-egoed bloggers need is that much needed internship with Newsweek or BusinessTimes. I'm not saying for all in general, a couple of them are really really good, like Wannabe Lawyer. But the truckloads of people jumping on the political blog bandwagon is disturbingly symptomatic of a conformist nation, which is ironic because these blogs rant about how our nation espouses conformity and regulation, but they themselves are unwittingly part of the things they gripe about.
Anyway, I will try my best to gives you a short mock excerpt of a 'serious' blog. Sentences are often drafted into the most formal, albeit somewhat pretentious, manner. Eg:
Despite the impressive growth rates in the region, there are some serious questions about the policies and institutions in the high performing East Asian economies. Indeed, several of the traditional institutions can be expected to impose a binding constraint upon the continuation of the rapid economic growth in Singapore and in other countries in the region.
In particular, many of these institutions militate against individuality and individual rights and freedoms. In turn, "authoritarian capitalism" describes the operational elements of this particular development model. On one hand, authoritarian-capitalist regimes place a limited and selective set of persistent policy interventions into market activities. On the other hand, these same regimes impose heavy restrictions on political activity. Whereas, Soviet economies contrived to have an economy without prices, authoritarian capitalism presides over markets without the guarantee of individual freedoms or rights. As a result, there are conflicting and misleading signals about a relatively free economy whereas political freedoms are repressed within an authoritarian- based government. Singapore's single-party regime offers a model of authoritarian capitalism that may be followed by other single-party regimes in the region.
Sometimes, an overdose of these blogs can just turn you into one humourless square-pack.
Then there are the confused ones. The ones that try to be funny, and yet objective. Try to be personal, and yet indifferent. Some succeed, like Mr Brown , others fail miserably. Since I am a perfectly sane person, I am unable to come out with examples of such insipid posts of these confused bloggers.
Last but not least there are the angry bloggers. We all know these kinds. There are the classy kinds and the uncouth kinds that cheapen vulgarities.
nab**! ( can't say it out. Marilyn and Raymond has banned me from all expletives) c***c***b**! Why like that! Why are the kids on those buses so noisy? those f***tards, inconsiderate pieces of trash, causing undue noise pollution to all us commuters. can't those parents just inject some sedatives into their frigging bloodstream to shut them up? What is society coming to? Parents just allow their kids to make all sorts of unwelcome noises on the bus as if it belonged to them. What the f***? These parents should be crucified and stoned man. Talk about the exacerbation of moral values! Inconsiderate people are rampant in our society nowadays.
So you seem, very common right?
If you want some really good blogs where the bloggers have a strong persona and a clear identity of their what their blog is, do visit my kick-a** links on the right. Out.
