This is a mini-essay I wrote for an internet board. Some thoughts of mine on the internet, cheap thought, and blogging. Thought I'd put it here as well to get some feedback as there are a disproportionate number of bloggers here. Excuse the grammar and lack of capitals: it's IRC and I don't take the time when I just want to pound out an idea. The full text:
buzz/#candyland@efnet.net:6667/!*
impending wall of text/pg13/grammar-less/clear/Quiet
we've all heard it said: "there's nothing new under the sun." there's no place that this statement proves truer than the internet. today, thousands of bloggers will post their opinions on news, rants about their miserable life, confessions of unrequited love, reviews of products and multimedia, and accounts of their trip/vacation/pilgrimage/hibernation. and while each person brings their own unique worldview, mindset and vocabulary to their article, the result is often not all that different from another authors work about the same topic. from this phenomenon comes the profound homage from the people of 4chan "every post is a repost of a repost of a repost"
my mind often wanders to thoughts such as these as i'm browsing and contributing to websites/forums/irc. for this reason there are some things that, although i'd like to write on, i won't simply because the subject matter is all too common. for example, i will never write an article about christmas, or pretty much any holiday. no matter how cynical or sarcastic i make it, there will have been someone who articulated the same idea, if not the same exact words, before me. no matter what view i choose to approach the subject with, it will simply be an echo of some unknown authors words. when you think about it, this concept says a lot about our culture. we all strive to be so unique, but it is that very attempt that causes us to fail. we are desperate for others attention, to the point that we assume our opinions on trivial matters such as a holiday are profound enough that other people will care to spend time to read about them, and possibly even change their opinion after being exposed to them. its enough to make you wonder if posting anything on the internet is worth the effort.
motivation aside, peoples opinions are indeed noticed. every day, people from all over the world come to this website, and presumably during their visit read what i have to say. some even take the time to reply to/notice (irc term) me their thoughts about my articles. popular blogs have tens of thousands of people who read about whats on the writers mind on a daily basis. i myself am an almost religious reader of yesbutnobutyes, a mostly comedic blog with several contributing authors. the internet community, literate or not, serves to stimulate minds through a medium in which readers can express their feelings or debate with the author-a feature news sources can never emulate. but yet, cross posting is abundant. truly original content is scarce to non existent. is it because bloggers are so hungry for page hits they're afraid of coming up with something different? possibly, but i don't think so. even among "non mainstream" authors, the same basic ideas prevail. maybe our society only has a limited number of things to talk about, and only a certain number of differing opinions and worldviews in which to approach them with. i've come to the point where it's very rare for me to hear a conversation or read an article that is truly interesting. should i blame the growing tendency for people to have to be constantly entertained? or have the people run out of things to talk about?
when i'm talking to a friend about a game i like, or expressing my feelings of animosity for the world, i can't help but wonder how many times someone else has said the exact same thing. it has a belittling effect to conversation. in some instances, such as trying to persuade a girl that she wants to have sex with me, i can be sure that another equally desperate guy tried the exact same combination of words in some other setting. we may have differing levels of success, but there's not a thing i could say that hasn't been said before by somebody else. this bothers me, but i can't even put my finger on why it does. maybe it's dehumanizing. maybe i just don't like the idea of being the same as all the other sheeple.