Opinion
Blogs, vlogs entertain but do little else
November 29, 2007
The entirely eloquent, trustworthy and accurate UrbanDictionary defines the term “blog” as: “Short for weblog. A meandering, blatantly uninteresting online diary that gives the author the illusion that people are interested in their stupid, pathetic life.” Consists of such riveting entries as ‘homework sucks’ and ‘I slept until noon today’.”
While some individuals use their weblogs for communication with their loved ones and friends or as a personal documentation for what is going on in their lives at the time, some take full advantage of the weblog community. And, like any other community, this is full of stereotypical cliques: the so-called cool kids, losers, creeps, fatties, bland people, and so on.
The majority of blogs are exactly as UrbanDictionary described. The occasional blog, however, is full of creative expression. A person has the ability to shine through their freedom of speech, and simple subjects such as homework and sleeping in can morph into hilarious entries that readers can relate to and be highly entertained by.
You don’t necessarily need a fabulous life to have a popular blog. Charisma, strong opinions and the ability to write well are the ingredients for a popular weblog with a large fan base, no matter which stereotype you may fit into.
I recently witnessed blogs come to life. They call them “vlogs,” short for video-blog. Instead of a blogger simply writing what they have to say, they film themselves and post these clips for the world to see. There is a large community of vloggers on the increasingly popular Web site YouTube.
I will be the first to admit that, just as mainstream blogging sites, most of these people ramble on about the painfully mundane.
They sulk in their swivel chairs in front of their Apple laptops and talk to a web cam as if it’s their best friend. Some of them do it stylishly and with adorable English accents. Their good looks and tastes in independent music and films draw in a large crowd of Internet Community enthusiasts, but they choose to do things such as minute long clips of themselves eating entire cucumbers set to charming folk music.
Take, for example, the very popular mememolly. I’m guessing that her popularity didn’t spawn from the content of her videos, but rather, the qualities that I mentioned.
After weeding through many of these types, I stumbled upon a vlogging comedian by the username of Spricket24. She is a redhead from Minneapolis who has won popularity awards on YouTube for her witty commentary on things such as dollar stores, Peeps and prank phone calling.
I highly suggest giving these YouTube vloggers a glance if you have the spare time to listen to average people have random conversations.
It’s a comforting fact in this day and age that if you don’t have any friends in real life, you have thousands of best friends waiting to tell you about their day on YouTube. It’s a lot like America’s Funniest Home Videos, without the humor. And sometimes the people aren’t American.
Annee Mayer-Chapleau is a junior studying creative writing. She loves astronomy and her main goal in life is to dance like David Byrne from the Talking Heads.