Infinite MonkeysI linked below to a piece by Monty Ashley, in which he objects to the term "Blogosphere." "Objects" may not do Monty's feelings justice. He writes:
Actually, I hate it. For one thing, it's a weird neologism that contributes to the degradation of our language. But that doesn't bother me that much really, because our language is already fairly far down that path.What I actually object to is that it pretends to mean "all blogs everywhere; the universe of blogs" but it always secretly means "my blog and the handful of blogs I read."
I was heartened (if slightly alarmed) to learn that this site is, in his words, "pretty much the only [conservative blog] I read on a regular basis." Monty goes on to mention how we often refer to the words and works of a certain nationally syndicated talk show host by the name of Hugh Hewitt. "This confuses me," Monty writes, "because I have absolutely no idea who Hugh Hewitt is. Not a clue. But in the Infinite Monkeys world, he's apparently a superstar. And that's the thing. If someone on Infinite Monkeys says 'The Blogosphere,' they mean a group of blogs that includes Hugh Hewitt."
Personally, I feel sorry for people who don't know who Hugh Hewitt is. I won't feel so sorry when the Revolution comes. Ignorance of Hugh Hewitt will be no excuse.
But I digress.
I think Monty is on to something when he suggests a term such as "neighborhood of blogs" as a more accurate description of what folks mean when they refer to the "blogosphere." But its implied universality is really no different than somebody saying "everyone's talking about X," or "the whole country was complaining that Y." Monty may be overstating his objection a bit, but the neighborhood paradigm certainly fits my reading habits and feelings about wandering versus visiting sites.
Posted by Ben at March 26, 2004 03:11 PM | TrackBack