Unfortunately, this will not be a creative piece. It is a starter piece, a beginner piece, and an introduction to blogging.
Today, I'm going to coin the term "metablog". (A quick Google search has just informed me that "metablog" indeed has been used before by other people in the exact same context as I am going to use it. Oh well.) Many of you are already familiar with the prefix "meta"; it often means "pertaining to" or "the study of". If you study philosophy, then you should already be familiar with metaethics and metaphysics, the studies of what ethics and physics are, respectively. For my purposes, "metablogging" will pertain to the study of blogging. This includes (and is not limited to) the effects of blogging, the distinguishing characteristics of blogs, and the purpose of blogs.
So why begin here? This is needlessly academic for a blog post. I'm sure that most of you don't care much about the formalism above. That's understandable, given you're probably not reading this post in order to learn something. But if you're not here to learn something, why are you here? Do you expect me to be entertaining and witty? Would you like me to juggle and make you laugh?
A long time ago, long before the printing press, stories were told by word of mouth. To be a writer was a rarity; more people "wrote" by speaking than by writing. In order for stories to persist, they had to be told and retold. This would be like playing an inter-generation game of telephone; I imagine that stories would literally evolve through the years.
Still a long time ago, but only immediately before the printing press, there were precious few books. Information was transferred by hand; only important works had the relevancy to be copied. Although I'm sure there was some writing, I imagine that the vast majority of the works which were copied and distributed were religious texts.
The point is simple: in the days of old, you had to be relevant, significant, or otherwise notable in order to be "published".
The invention of the printing press must have rapidly changed this.
Immediately after the invention of the printing press, it seems likely that the already-important, already-been-copied works were printed and distributed on a massive scale (a primary example of this is the Bible).
This leads the the creation of the printing industry. The printing industry allows people to be published if they are particularly adept at selling their work. Whether a writer gets paid by contractual writing or by writing a book that everyone buys, it takes a certain level of writing proficiency to be published. Maybe it takes less proficiency the first time a person gets published, but I'm sure the printing industry is like any other: either its employees get good or find new work.
This brings us to the relevant question of the post: how do blogs fit into this picture? This is a question about metablogging and it explains why the formalism is outlined at the top of this post. Blogs appear to be, at least on the surface, a culture-changing development in the history of publishing.
Blogs are a low-cost, widely available means of publication. If you have access to the internet, you can now be an author. That might not guarantee readership, but it certainly gets you a lot farther than the days of old; today, everyone connected to the internet has access to your writing, even if they don't read it. In the distant past, there was no real means of reaching your audience. In the not-so-distant past, the only means of reaching your audience was to demonstrate a proficiency in writing before publication. Now, your audience is practically everyone. The only question is whether or not you have enough writing proficiency to develop a following.
In essence, blogging is your foot in the door of legitimate authorship.
Granted, this is a culture-changing development in the sense that now anyone can publish without demonstrating writing proficiency. However, as was pointed out before, publication does not guarantee readership. Therein lies the striking similarity to the not-so-distant past: in order to be a successful blogger, you must demonstrate enough of a proficiency in writing in order to generate readership. Granted, people may not be buying your books and blogging may not be your primary source of income, but writing prowess is necessary to captivate people's attention. This is the difference between successful and unsuccessful blogs, just as it used to be the difference between successful and unsuccessful writers.
So what does publication look like today?
Blogging has changed the landscape of publication. Publication is relatively cheap (as expensive as your internet connection), but the authorship is not guaranteed. Unlike the writing industry, which provides jobs in addition to publishing opportunities, blogging has opened the door for many prevalent writers who may not otherwise have had a chance. Conversely, it provides greater competition for those people in the writing industry today.
However, the end result is the same as yesteryear. Those with intelligent, captivating writing are read. Those without such writing never really had a chance. The internet is a place for shared information, yet it seems as though there is a saturation point. Any individual can really have access to too much information. When that person does, he or she has to pick and choose what to read.
I'm just hoping that we give you reason to stay.
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