Comments on: Peasants Don’t Blog

By: Linda F

Linda F — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:11:19 +0000

Despite the soaring numbers in the blog scene, I find that the numbers of people actually BLOGGING (posting at least once a week) on topics of general interest is relatively stable. It ramps up when there is a “hot-button” issue or an impending election, but drops down again after. For every blogger starting up, another one burns out and quits, at least temporarily.

By: Booker Rising

Booker Rising — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 17:57:32 +0000

LA SHAWN BARBER COMMENTARY: Peasants Don’t Blog

The conservative blogger, on an article arguing that blogs are overrated because of several challenges as an independent and authentic new press: “A blog can be whatever the user wants it to be. The independence and authenticity blogs provide are only…

By: jan brauner

jan brauner — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 15:41:35 +0000

It just hit me! All this time, I’ve been viewing myself as a peasant, and now I realize that I am of an elevated status……How do I know this? Cuz Perlmutter told me so…Yeah!!!!!!!!!!

By: docjim505

docjim505 — Mon, 08 Aug 2005 10:56:52 +0000

Kudos to all those (starting with Frank Z) who pointed out that MORE EDUCATED people are also college professors, journalists, etc. However, I’ve never seen a requirement ‘Must have a BA’ to open a blog. Blogging is utterly egalitarian: if you have access to the internet (not so rare these days, at least in the United States), you can blog. If people like what they read, they’ll comment and keep coming back. If not… Well, nobody’s going to stop you from shouting into the vacuum of cyberspace even if nobody’s listening!

Blogs are nothing more than hi-tech versions of 18th century broadsides, or the soapbox on the corner, or the water cooler, or the local bar: they are places where people can express their opinions.

I guess this bothers people who want society to be a bit more regulated and controlled.

By: John

John — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 19:56:11 +0000

I think everyone seems to be overlooking a major reason that working people are less likely to blog. For many working people, it’s all about having the time to blog. Before I started working my summer job, I was always updating, modifying and improving my blogs. So long as I was able to meet my course requirements in college, blogging consumed most of my time.

However, once I went to work, I stopped blogging, almost altogether. Why? Lack of time. Unlike the care free life of a college student, the work world is a whole other animal. Once you find yourself getting up in the wee hours of the morning, and spending all day lond doing gruling, boring tasks at a job you hate, you start coming home around six and seven o’clock just completely drained. You have no extra energy for anything, and everything becomes a struggle.

I arrive home at the end of the day, at which point I shower, eat, meet my requirements for the one class I’m taking over the summer and then crash around 9:30 or 10:00. As soon as my head hits the pillow, it’s 5 am once again and it’s back to work.

Add to that the fact that while I’m at work, my focus is on work. Not reading the Drudge report. Not listening to talk radio. Not reading the papers or watching TV. Not listening to Cubs games. Where I work, I wouldn’t have know about the 9/11 attacks untill the following night. It’s life in a bubble, and hence to no time to blog and nothing to blog about. I do get to carry a lot of sand bags though. Woo hoo.

I can’t wait to go back to college full time in the fall. One more month and counting.

At least I was able to get in one good post on my Cubs blog a while ago. Shockingly, it’s about work.

http://cubbycorner.blogspot.com/2005/07/its-been-while.html

By: Conservative Musings

Conservative Musings — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 19:44:37 +0000

Bloggers are the Rich?

La Shawn Barber on August 5th blogs about Professor David Perlmutter’s comments about blogs. It seems his conclusion’s are that bloggers are mostly the rich, summed up by his statement: “Peasants don’t blog. Not yet, anyway.”

By: Evon Bachaus

Evon Bachaus — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 13:33:46 +0000

Buying books such as the one the professor is writing and going to college to sit under the professor cost money too and the “poor” often don’t do either. So, should we discount book readers and a college educated people because they don’t truly represent “the people?”

I think I caught a glimpse of something in the professor’s comments. In his fantasy, he likes the “poor and uneducated” because he sees them as more malleable and more willing to listen to his ideas without challenging them. Like so many he’s using the poor to intimidate and discount what he doesn’t like.

I’m willing to bet that blogs have increased the reach of a large number of people with ideas and writing talent. They can now get their ideas out to a much wider audience. I’m thankful we’re not living in the days of the “salons” when only the elite were invited to exchange ideas.

By: jan brauner

jan brauner — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 05:42:17 +0000

Speaking of going to one’s local library to blog…I had a rude awakening recently…My internet crashed and I went to my library to blog.There were two stand up locations to ‘compute for a maximum of fifteen minutes,with a waiting time of approximately forty minutes just to log on. Ten feet away there was a section with ten computers, unattended, for ‘new immigrants’ only. There were no lines, no sign-ins, the chairs were beautiful, the entire area was luxurious, yet regular library users were not allowed to access this area. I was trying to access my daughter’s plane reservations and it took me over one hour standing in line, and meanwhile the entire immigrant section was entirely empty. There’s something wrong with this picture……

By: RedBeard

RedBeard — Sun, 07 Aug 2005 00:14:32 +0000

I guess I’m missing the good professor’s point as well. Does he actually think he has one?

By: Bullseye

Bullseye — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 22:54:00 +0000

“Clogs”, a type of shoe that faded away in the 80′s.
“Clogging”, a type of dance that went out in the 90′s. I blog because it’s better than watching TV. Who knows how long it’ll be around.

By: jan brauner

jan brauner — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 20:31:39 +0000

Andy;
Exactly back atcha! What is so funny is that the left has expressed concern that blogs are predominated by…..oh my gosh……males. They were actually batting around legislation to ‘make the blogosphere more ‘representative’…..The mere thought that liberals will ruin one of the few areas left in this world where an individual sinks or swims on the quality of their work, makes me shudder in disgust. As far as I am concerned, the blogosphere is the ultimate in ‘equality of opportunity’! Let’s protect it!

By: cynthia

cynthia — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 17:28:07 +0000

This was a very interesting analysis.

By: Andy

Andy — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 16:51:11 +0000

Re #19 Jan, exactly! Who knew who was behind the alias Wretchard at Belmont Club? It took several years before he recently stepped out and declared himself to be Richard Fernandez, of Filipino birth and Australian citizenship with a Masters in Public Policy from Harvard — an non-American minority, imagine that! For all most readers could have known, he/she could have been a cat, which was by the way the alias was the name of an imaginary cat.

People came to his site because of the quality of his content and analysis, not his degree and pedigree. Perlmutter is clueless and can only mutter about his kind of elites being bypassed as the arbiter of truth.

By: mj

mj — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 13:58:17 +0000

People who can’t afford a computer and internet connection at home can always go to the library. They can sign up for 30-minute sessions, and can do it a few times a day–libraries are open from morning until evening, some from 9 am to 9 pm.

By: jan brauner

jan brauner — Sat, 06 Aug 2005 13:45:32 +0000

Given the abysmal state of education today, Perlmutter may have more accurately stated that journalism tends to be overpopulated with higher-indoctrinated (not higher-educated) individuals. The immense appeal of blogs is their egalitarian nature. One is judged on one’s writing and ideas….not one’s degree, sex, or race. Second, the immense array of delectibles offered to the hungry reader is enticing. Thirdly, blogs are not bound by political correctness in the overwhelming percentage that the MSM is…thank God. Being able to respond and read responses is mentally quite stimulating.The sense of community is awesome. And, I quite like not having my values slammed in my face every day, as they are in the liberal paper in Austin. Lastly, blogs are far more relentless about seeking out the truth. I love that.