blogging, like rock music, is usually voluntary work

here's a model. tell me where it doesn't apply, or where i haven't followed through on it far enough. tell me also if i've replicated something someone else has said without realising or remembering that that's what i'm doing.


I - VOLUNTARY WORK
1. blogging, like playing in a rock band, is voluntary work most of the time for most people.

2. like other voluntary work, it may lead to
a) Better-Paid Things Later On, or
b) burn-out.

3. like other voluntary work, it's especially likely to lead to burn-out if one's only motivation for starting is Better-Paid Things Later On.

4. as with other voluntary work many of the rewards are non-financial. instead they're things like
a) getting practice doing something: writing, or design, or analysis (for example).
b) meeting people with similar interests.
c) getting better-known in a certain field.
d) making a contribution to the rest of the world.

this last point - that blogging is some kind of contribution to the rest of the world - is least-recognised, largely because we don't think of blogging as voluntary work very often. it's not really a big part of how bloggers think about themselves at the moment.

what kind of contribution? well, that depends on what kind of work blogging is. i'd argue it's voluntary intellectual work, of at least the following (non-exclusive) varieties and maybe more:

entertainment: making people shudder enjoyably, either with amusement (lol!) or indignation (wtf!) or amazement (zomg!) or in some other way.

reporting and publicity: telling people about stuff that happened, whether one's own activities or someone or something else's.

secondhand dealing: filtering through the seething mass of stuff we call the internet for attractive and interesting items amidst the junk.

analysis: making sense of the seething mass of stuff we call current events, or the internet, or technological progress, or anything else.

archiving: keeping a bunch of similar things in one place.

rabble-rousing: motivating readers to do something or other - organise their sock drawers, for example, or form vigilante-style gangs.


II - PAID WORK
1. like playing in a rock band, blogging can be paid work some of the time for some people.

2. as with rock music, most of the practitioners who get paid produce a sea of insipidity. (why? see III - ADVERTISING, below.)

3. as with rock music, there are a few exceptions. instead of a sea of insipidity they produce a sea of wonderful things. they wear capes and we worship them as gods.

4. as with rock music, no-one agrees which practitioners produce the sea of insipidity and which produce the sea of wonderful things. there are clusters of preference which sometimes covary reliably, but that's about it.


III - ADVERTISING
1. to the degree that any blogger starts to chase advertising dollars, the quality and content of their output will more and more closely approximate that of network television.* why? because

2. advertising dollars are to network television what eucalyptus leaves are to koalas, i.e., the only available source of food. the supply of and competition for advertising dollars is the strongest evolutionary pressure on network television, and it has adapted to fit. network television is what screen-based content turns into once it's chased advertising dollars for long enough.

3. the last metaphor could be better, probably if koalas were replaced with some kind of flower.



* except, for some reason, there will be a lot more lists.