Is the Internet improving the overall quality of writing?
I’d say MySpace argues against the notion, myself.
But Wired has a more at-length column along those same lines:
As a mere stripling, I was advised that if I hoped to become a good writer, I should write every day. More than that, I should read good writing every day. This can be accomplished on the internet as easily as it can by reading a book or magazine. But if you’re the sort who prefers People to The New Yorker, well, again, what’s the point?
So my riposte to Topsy was, while the internet may be a nifty vehicle for delivering one’s polished prose and penetrating insights to an impatiently waiting world, it can’t help you become a better writer if you, pardon my French, suck.
Moreover, the internet leads to all sorts of unsavory writing practices, like blogging. You know, the journal of the 21st century.
Keeping a diary or journal (“journaling” they now call it, thanks to the modern world’s habit of turning perfectly good nouns into verbs) was common among the literate before television came along and hooked us up to the communal drool bucket.
A journal exists for its author to reflect on, well, anything. A fading love, political turmoil, a spat with a friend, the weather in Buffalo, New York, on June 10, 1946. The writer is free to express the most intimate thoughts, because the nature of keeping a journal is to keep it private.
Occasionally, if the journal belongs to a writer or an artist or a statesman, the writing is so compelling that it finds its way into print after the author dies. In the best of those, we are invited into the mind behind the creative process and we emerge with a deeper understanding of a masterwork, say, or the thinking behind a crucial political decision.
Most journals go unread, though, and that’s the way it should be. The contents were only intended for the writer’s eyes, after all.
A lot of people will tell you that blogging is merely journaling online. It is not. Blogging is not private, but very public. And very few blogs involve the kind of introspection that characterizes a serious journal. Most blogging is sheer exhibitionism, either the self-absorbed ramblings of an individual blogger or the corporate site that exists for the sole purpose of making money. (If anyone sees a disturbing parallel between blogging and column writing, kindly keep it to yourself.)
This doesn’t mean blogs have to be badly written. It just means that most are.
This blog, incidentally, began as a somewhat private affair, intending to keep family, friends and voyeurs up to date on my health. The Internet being what it is, and my job being what it is, that didn’t really end up lasting terribly long, so now it’s written with the knowledge that it’s a public blog.
Good thing I never talked about killing that man in Reno, just to watch him die.
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I apologize for intruding into private space. I certainly had no malicious intent. I enjoyed reading the blog and presumed the calls for comments were for all. I will read elsewhere.
Comment by Chris B. — April 28, 2006 @ 8:20
Nah, that ship has sailed. When a city councilman posts on your blog, and the publisher of the paper says he’s read it, it’s a public blog, and I now write with that in mind.
Comment by Beau — April 28, 2006 @ 9:01
You love the attention. Don’t make people feel bad for coming to see how long the cats and the wife take to run away.
Comment by Dmitry the Wizzy — April 28, 2006 @ 14:14
I’m fast enough to catch the cats. If nothing else, I can just open a can of cat food and they’ll come running. When the wife goes over the wall, I’m out of luck.
Comment by Beau — April 28, 2006 @ 18:24