IP Democracy: Are Blogs Like Dollhouses?

The New York Times’ David Carr has this meditation on how blogging has changed his routine as a journalist. Carr has a blog devoted to the Oscars and aptly likens blogging to a labrador retriever.

For those of you who don’t have a blog yet, think of one as a large yellow Labrador: friendly, fun, not all that bright, but constantly demanding your attention.

Carr says that he cares about his blog a lot, almost to the point where he neglects his regular journalistic duties.

Sometimes I wonder whether I care to the point that I neglect other things, like, oh, my job. Tweaking the blog is seductive in a way that a print deadline never is. By the time I am done posting entries, moderating comments and making links, my, has the time flown.

He also quotes NYU’s Clayton Shirky who raises another very apt analogy.

There is an obsessive, dollhouse pleasure in configuring and looking at it [one’s blog], a constant measure of social capital.

Of the two analogies, the dollhouse metaphor rings truer to me. I often look at my blog, re-read items I’ve posted, correct typos or formatting errors, all the while wondering how I can make this blog better, more timely, more relevant, more graphically pleasing. A veritable dollhouse.

The problem is: my blog is a sideline. I have a business that pays the bills, but the blog is so much more fun. So like Carr, I often find myself working on the blog when I should be focusing on revenue-generating efforts.

I’ve vowed to lighten up on the blogging in order to focus on the business, cutting back on the amount of time I devote to posting blog items. But like a dollhouse, the blog sits here in need of spiffing-up, and I can’t leave it alone for very long.

Posted by Cynthia Brumfield on January 14, 2007 6:55 PM to IP Democracy