As a college girl and card carrying member of the millennial generation, reading blogs is right up my alley. Like my peers, especially those at a competitive top twenty school, I value my own time above everyone else’s (for better or worse…probably worse) so I enjoy the easily digestible, sound bite, quick draw McGraw format that’s used in most successful blogs. In reading the Huffington Post’s Guide to Blogging, I was compelled by the bevy of information about blogs at my fingertips, most which I had never really considered at length – from creating buzz to finding a voice. (The history of the Huffington Post was interesting but I didn’t quite make the connection with how that would help my blog… again with the me thing?! I think there might be more where that came from.)
While simultaneously considering all the advice about blogs, though, I felt a distinct sense of “Well, duh.” Growing up with my fingers usually at a keyboard and not a book, I could tell that the Huffington Post Guide’s goal was to patiently, albeit wittily, explain the ins an outs of blogs to someone unfamiliar with this crucial form of media. I know what makes a blog successful, because I’ve grown up following them. To me, this is the “traditional form of media”, not the hour-long news specials and newspapers and ye olde taverns of precious generations. Perhaps me giving a slight cold shoulder to the explanations of the Huffington Post Guide is just the narcissism that has sneaked and streaked its way across my generation and college campus, but at the very least, I am self-aware. I (we) read blogs because they are fast, passionate, and to some extent, very self-centered – just like us.
Needless to say, I was happy to put down the book that told me how it was done, and get started on the blogs that made it happen.
Andrew Sullivan on TheDailyBeast.com: The most appealing to me of the blogs, Sullivan writes with a quick wit and an on a variety of topics that keep my generational ADD satisfied. I very much appreciate his tendency to include quotes and opinions from his readers, a refreshing addition to the blogosphere. Sullivan’s usage of photos and videos add color to his already vivid writing. I particularly enjoyed his live-blogging of the RNC and DNC in the past few weeks. The only way to remain relevant in such a vast network of reporting is to sometimes go minute by minute and I found his commentary brief and enlightening. Finally, not in terms of writing, but in terms of perspective and ideology, Sullivan’s conservatism is refreshing for my generation that is progressive on social issues.
Gizmodo.com: I also have very much enjoyed reading Gizmodo, much to my surprise. Even though I grew up in a technologically saturated world, I know that there are those out there who would surgically attach their electronic devices to their bodies if they knew said device probably wouldn’t be obsolete in .5 seconds. I am not all up on the tech jargon, nor do I really care to be. However, Gizmodo provides a great balance between the tech-sissy, the tech-savvy, and the tech-sassy (Some of the comments from the tech community can get very heated! Perhaps we should add technology to the American religion-politics taboo.) The balanced writing and knowledge of the broad audience reflects some of the ideas in On Writing Well. All in all, the variety of formats keeps the site fresh (“What to Buy in September” was a list, “Is it bad to shut down my computer regularly?” was a question and answer piece, and “Lenovo X1 Carbon: Holy Crap” was a review) and the endless number of fascinating topics is enough to think even my grandfather (“What’s MyFace?!”) might want to check out Gizmodo.
Well Blog on NYTimes.com: Again, a variety of topics based on a general theme makes a strong selling point to my distracted friends. “Ooh, rare infections!” “Aah, organic food!” The headline fireworks notwithstanding, the simple, recognizable format of the NYTimes.com blog page creates a navigable page for maximum clicking. While the headlines were often attention-grabbing in typical journalistic fashion, I often found myself missing the snark of Andrew Sullivan and the writers of Gizmodo when reading the Well Blog. It is extremely informative – highly valued in a time of information and misinformation overload – but it can often read a little dry. The Huffington Post Guide suggests writing like you speak, and, if some of the writers of the Well Blog are in fact embodying that lesson, I’d think twice about inviting them to a dinner party.
Howard Fineman on the HuffingtonPost.com: After looking forward to reading one of the bloggers who wrote for the site who literally wrote the book on blogging, I have to say, I was slightly disappointed. While I very much enjoyed the writing of Fineman, particularly “The Man Who is Obama’s Problem,” an excellent profile of a man he sat next to on a plane, I was hoping for more timely posts, and a bit more multimedia integration. Sullivan can go back and forth on topics, live blogs, photos and videos, while Fineman seems more structured and deliberate in his writing. In my opinion, Fineman often displays stronger writing chops, but in the blogosphere, that isn’t the only piece in the puzzle.
David Roberts on Grist.org: Again, I thought that David Roberts may have missed the “blog often” memo from the Huffington Post Guide. With just five blogs since August 14, I feel like he might not have his finger on the pulse as much as the other blogs. He also writes extremely long blogs, which could indicate why there is so much time between them. I enjoyed his piece on post-truth politics, but it was so long that I had gone back to Gizmodo.com and hit refresh to see if there was anything new to read.
