March 2005. There was a lot of pope about the internet then. Mugabe’s presence at some ceremony got pride of place in the blog commentary though there was no mispronunciation of the word “caso” to set the social media alight. Did I say social media? In March 2005 youtube.com was barely a month old and Facebook was probably just a hint of an idea in some Harvard college.
Then was the time of insanabile cacoethes scribendi – the incredible urge to write. We blogged because we liked to blog and more than that we blogged because we could. Blogging as a mainstream thing had just begun its second decade of existence and was still in the process of causing some tremors in the online landscape. The MSM (mainstream media) reacted to blogs, almost indignantly pooh-poohing the independent army of keyboard freaks who had opened a huge crack in the world of “controlled media”.
Nine years ago blogs might have been an interesting way to get an immediate, independent take on the information going around the web. The thing is that most of that information was still in the domain of the old sources of information. Newspapers, TV and news groups had by then shifted to the net and there slant was not being complemented by the army of bloggers. Blogging was the thing to do… up until the blogger was awarded the Time Personality of The Year. A prize we will long cherish.
Then came social media – particularly facebook and twitter. Information – the sources of information – was multiplied to the nth degree and the power to comment upon anything was also disseminated exponentially. A biting blog post, a review, an insight – that became too slow. The age of clicktivism and clickteraction meant that blogs would be superseded by the outbursts of “trends” and “status updates”. The role of the blog – the real, old style blog – was changing and it was changing fast.
There was also a crucial moment with the rise and crash of Wikileaks and its founder. We learnt in one fell swoop how frugally the “truth” had been treated over all these years. Bloggers could not be so ambitious as to hope to be the guardians of independent and true scrutiny. When the veil of untruth was uncovered by Wikileaks it was already too late. Online meant a web of lies and truths confusingly intertwined. The consumer was not really in control. The netizen was living in denial.
Bloggers can still thrive. There is still a sense in blogging though it is a little different to that in 2005. As J’accuse turns nine we are aware that this medium required redefining and rebuilding. In the world of artificial intelligence and online tautologies spewed by the multitude on facebook and twitter the blog might serve the purpose of an anchor and reference point. I may be wrong. The time for this blog to wind up might have long come and gone.
This might be a blog that is in denial. There might be no place for this kind of reflection in this world of judge, jury and expert executioner by status update and commentary. Then again this might just be the very reason to kick off a new season with a new ambition and purpose.
This is the truth, if I lie.
