Blogger Identification
I just noticed that John Hawkins at Right Wing News has posted his favorite blogs and mine is on the list. How nice! I often wonder what motivates people to read certain blogs. I think I read recently that many blog readers identify with the blogger and therefore, enjoy reading someone who views the world in a similar way. I think this is true to some degree. But sometimes I think people read blogs because the blogger has a personality or has traits the reader aspires to have but does not, or has in a very small degree but the blogger has it in spades.
Let me give you an example. I recently started reading Rachel Lucas's blog. She blogged a while ago, I think, and quit and then recently came back. My husband was the one who started telling me to read her blog, and I would, occassionally, look at something she posted and then I realized one day that I was...hooked. Lucas writes rants, about everything from her dogs humping to why people don't treat their parents better and she does it with such flare that her subjects might be better off if she actually used a sword against them, rather than her pen--or in this case, her keyboard.
Do I admire that? You better believe I do. Could I do it or would I do it? Doubtful--it's not my style but it is a style that I admire. There is another side of myself that I wish I had fine-tuned more but didn't. When you spend years in a PHD program and in my profession, you learn to restrain yourself from ranting at people, and instead, try to be objective without letting others know too much about how you actually feel. Lucas does just the opposite; there is no mystery about how she feels, it's obvious.
Do you have a favorite blogger who serves as your alter ego, with the traits you wish you had, but don't for whatever reason--such as your profession, family, not your style, but wish it was? etc. Which blogger is it and why do you admire or want to be like him or her?
Update: Rachel responds: Most people have to pay a psychologist for this kind of mental help.
Let me give you an example. I recently started reading Rachel Lucas's blog. She blogged a while ago, I think, and quit and then recently came back. My husband was the one who started telling me to read her blog, and I would, occassionally, look at something she posted and then I realized one day that I was...hooked. Lucas writes rants, about everything from her dogs humping to why people don't treat their parents better and she does it with such flare that her subjects might be better off if she actually used a sword against them, rather than her pen--or in this case, her keyboard.
Do I admire that? You better believe I do. Could I do it or would I do it? Doubtful--it's not my style but it is a style that I admire. There is another side of myself that I wish I had fine-tuned more but didn't. When you spend years in a PHD program and in my profession, you learn to restrain yourself from ranting at people, and instead, try to be objective without letting others know too much about how you actually feel. Lucas does just the opposite; there is no mystery about how she feels, it's obvious.
Do you have a favorite blogger who serves as your alter ego, with the traits you wish you had, but don't for whatever reason--such as your profession, family, not your style, but wish it was? etc. Which blogger is it and why do you admire or want to be like him or her?
Update: Rachel responds: Most people have to pay a psychologist for this kind of mental help.
Labels: bloggers
posted by Helen at 6:42 PM
25 Comments:
Short answer, no.
Long answer (which you may have gathered over the years): I really don't have much trouble being whomever I wish to be. Not meaning putting it on, just meaning stating what I think and allowing others to feel whatever they want about it.
I've been short, cheerful, snide, helpful, civil and so forth when I've deemed the occasion. I usually try to engage in discourse (except with some AC's, whom I see much along the lines of rats in your sleep), but have no problem with dropping into a brawl if someone throws a punch.
Wow I don't think I've ever seen a post here up for this long with so few comments. Maybe the rest of the internet has better things to do on Friday night.
As for me, it's not so much personality stuff that I look towards, it's cohesiveness and persuasiveness in writing style. The Master was Steven Den Beste while he was writing at USS Clueless. I still go back and read his posts from years ago.
I simply don't seem to have the ability to maintain more than a couple cohesive paragraphs on a topic before seeing something shiny.
The other thing is I have FAR too much crossover between meatspace and my internet readership. So I've fallen prey the mediocrity of self-censorship. I'm not sure I have it in me to keep my internet presence separate enough to really let it rip though, so I to get quite green with envy when I see people who can.
But today? Nah, there's not really one out there. SdB's blogging about Anime now, in which I only have a cursory interest. And nobody's really taken up the mantle of being that riveting while still maintaining a cordial 'after dinner conversation' air that he had.
I enjoy mercurior's blog.
http://mercurior.blogspot.com/
I created my own alter ego who would say the things that my true self would censor. She's brash, exotic, and cruel, and I'm not. She's turned into a whole different part of my own personality in way, sometimes I find myself asking "what would she say?" Then I write it. Often I wonder if I even really agree with the stuff I write as her, but it's a totally enjoyable creative process.
See I've tried it. I just can't seem to keep church and state separate. I'm too much of a loudmouth. My excitement at actually posting something juicy spills over too much.
Still though you make a solid point. But after 7 years of doing this (gak, long time) I'm not sure if I could...
more I think about it, the better of an idea it sounds.
>;-)
s'cuse me
Do I have a favorite blogger who serves as my alter ego? No. That would be ridiculous.
There are several blogs I read daily though, including this one and Instapundit. They are Calculated Risk (which links to Mish's Global Economic Analysis, Naked Captialism, and the Mess that Greenspan Made), View from the Right, The Discerning Texan, Hot Air, and Michelle Malkin.
But I surf around and read a lot. I am above all things eclectic.
Depends on the subject material. I had never heard of Lucas before you mentioned her. When I went and read, I found she writes as if she were talking to a good friend out on the back deck. It is enjoyable to read. Cutting loose is a blast sometimes.
My dad used to talk about Arthur Godfrey being such a good radio man. Godfrey started on radio when most radios had head phones instead of loudspeakers. Basically, he realized that although he was talking to thousands - or more - in reality, he was being heard by one person at a time. And if you talk that way - like your talking to an individual - everyone listening might just feel a bit more special, and be inclined to listen a little more often. It holds true today. It holds true on a blog, giving a speech, talking on the radio, even a newscaster. I've e-mailed Rush Limbaugh about the very same thing. But even behind a mic in his studio, he talks like he is in front of a crowd. Sure, he's talking to millions. But he's being heard but a bunch of individual listeners.
Well, that rabbit's gone down a hole. This post is nothing like I had in mind when I started.
br549: well said. That's what happens to all posts of any substance, I find.
In May I'll celebrate my four year blogiversary. I have more than 5,500 posts that cover a range of topics.
Some are pretty good and others are just so so. Good writing requires discipline and rewriting.
I rarely spend any time rewriting my posts. It is something that I probably should spend more time doing as my posts would be more polished.
Some of my favorite blogs include
Treppenwitz, Therapy Doc, Bookworm, Seraphic Secret, The Muqata and The Rebbetzin's Husband.
Ttytt, I never got the appeal of Steven Den Beste, nor do I get the attraction to Bill Whittle's stuff. Just a matter of taste, no offense meant.
Shockingly, I spend a lot of time at the Advice Goddess. Is she an alter-ego? I dunno. But she's easy on the eyes, funny, dishes out some tasty rants, and she's active in her own comments.
My home page is Instapundit. However, Mr. Dr. Helen doesn't like comments, so I just don't get the immersion experience there. Still, it's my favorite blog. IS Mr. Reynolds my alter-ego? He does get the hot chicks, plays with cool gadgets. Naw. I'm not that cool.
I did try to blog once. But I'm a pompous ass who can't write for shit. Surprisingly, that's a real disadvantage for a blogger. Maybe that's my real alter ego. A two-year-old blog with only two posts, written by a loser at 3am in the morning. It has an austere kind of beauty. Doesn't it?
Oh, I didn't mention Protein Wisdom? It's the second tab on my home page thingy. Wow. I really don't want PW to be my alter ego. 'Nuff said. Still, it probably is...that means my alter-ego is a pompous ass who can't write for shit struggling with multiple personality disorder.
This has been very therapeutic.
A blogger whom I want to be like? No. But there are a number of bloggers I admire because of how differently from me they approach blogging:
Aurora at The Midnight Sun
Travis Corcoran
Mark Alger
Nice Deb
Roger W. Gardner of RadarSite
And Fetiche Nouvelle, whom I recently persuaded to join Eternity Road.
These folks write about subject matter I wouldn't address, and/or they write in a style distant from mine. They refresh me.
What other reason is there to surf the Net, anyway?
I am not so sure about the term alter ego, in liking bloggers.
In this world of competition I find it refreshing that other people are interested in the same things I am; or should I say, I find I am interested in many of the same things other bloggers write about.
I like to think I have a pretty eclectic list of reads for every day.
My military career placed me in many different occupations. I appreciate bloggers who are in the same occupations and are willing to share what is happening with them and what is currently important.
Perhaps there is some "alter ego" involved, since I truly enjoy this blog, and have always thought I would like to have advanced in the field of psych. Wasn't able to pass the GRE.
Thank you Dr Helen, for your willingness and openness.
Mr. Dr. Helen, I like that one!
My favorite blogs are here, Instapundit, Althouse, and Powerpop. It greatly amuses me that the last two are rather antagonistic toward each other, but I enjoy them both immensley.
Of course, there are other places I check in, including LaShawn Barber and Home Sweet Home, but I have 4 that I check every day.
As to why, first, I enjoy most of the topics at those blogs. With all but InstaMrDr, I really enjoy the comments and discussion. A lot! It is fun to comment, I think in part because during my work day my opinion is much more circumscribed.
I don't blog words, I blog photos, and I have been remiss in that for awhile! While I really enjoy the writing of comments as it charpens my thoughts and is fun, I am just not up for coming up with the topics and generating the ideas. I do better in responding to them.
But I really appreciate Helen and Glenn and Steve and Althouse, they make my life more fun and informed. I also appreciate my fellow commenters, you guys rock mostly.
Trey
Maybe not alter ego, but the blog I am most likely to go to for the personality of the blogger is this one. There is a comforting combination of rationality and warmth here. And, Dr. Helen epitomizes what I think feminism should be, as opposed to what it has become.
It also helps that she provides a voice for males, which I don't see us being able to provide for ourselves. I know that I, for one, am much too shrill to be effective in that role.
And, given the number of men who frequent this blog, I doubt if I am the only one in this category.
I started by thinking about the bloggers I read more than casually and they usually have some combination of being interesting, informative (if only in the sense of learning how other people live) and likeable. Somebody who rants all the time would just end up irritating me. Somebody who does anything all the time would just end up irritating me I suspect.
I think the most wonderful unexpected find recently is Rachel, who does the PBS show Signing Time. Now, I don't even watch the show but she has an extremely interesting life and writes in a very readable fashion. In particular she went to Ghana recently to try to do something about the state of education of deaf kids there - it's so bad the teachers don't believe they're teachable - and just showing up for a couple of weeks with her deaf but clearly very smart kid and teaching some classes probably had an impact.
http://www.signingtime.com/rachel/
I'm thinking of changing my "handle" to tommytypo. I regularly hit the letter next to the one I want to type.
I bought the CD Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing a few years ago. She came to my house and took the CD away. Hopeless.
Index fingers alone do not a typist make. I write about 30 e-mails a day at work, and type a lot here and on a few other blogs.
The typos drive me nuts. Even if I read a post before pushing the go button, I rarely catch them. Funny, though. I don't miss a single mistake made on someone else's e-mail or letter. I'll bet there's something to that.
As soon as I read the comment from Francis W Poretto I realized why I always stop in to see what he has posted. He is such a gentleman, and so well informed and his slant on things is so different from the people I usually interact with. I think that I go to various places because I am not able to get on a plane and visit with people who used to talk to William Buckley on a daily basis (NRO on line) or those who think such deep thoughts that I need to stretch every time I go there..using dictionaries and reading the material he is discussing - Gagdad Bob..One Cosmos. The news is so rich and the conversation so varied that I am enriched by the places I am able to drop in and visit. What a wonderful place this internet is!! By the way...I visit here quite frequently since I always leave with some enlightening information. Thank you. I love Rachel Lucas too and have for such a long time.
Rob Smith (Acidman) was the best blogger I ever read. He's dead now but has inspired many blogs, including mine. He was fearless about his coverage, which cost him his job and access to his son.
Also I like Neo-Neocon. One could look on those two as my blogparents, but it would be too weird.
I just recently found your blog - and honestly started reading it when I discovered that you have my dream job! ha!
I love to read blogs that cause me to stop and think about what I believe and how I live my life....as well as being informative and entertaining!
The answer is, yes, there is a blogger who kind of serves as my surrogate voice...and it's my brother:
www.aalan94.blogspot.com
I have a link to this blog from mine and I spend most of my blog reading time here. I like that you are an introvert so you understand what it is like. Also you seem really understanding of people's circumstances. Politically, I consider myself more of a conservative than a libertarian, although I sway that way occasionally. I like that you aren't afraid to say what you believe. I know some people are here because of your views on men. I really don't have the experience with women that most on here do, but I have become more aware of the issues because of you.
Another one I used to read, but is no longer available was written by a Christian who often talked about his beliefs. I do not currently belong to any church, but I enjoyed reading his views and it helped strengthen my belief in Christianity. Another one I read is written by a conservative Jew who is a very strong supporter of Israel, it is refreshing to here his views. Another one that I read is not about politics, just random funny and interesting articles and videos he finds. My own blog is about movies and I usually don't talk about politics.
My blog is my alter-ego. To aspire to be like another is a non-starter in the sense of what a "web log" should be. So, it's all about me, warts and all.
I wish I could write better. I wish I had a developed sense of myself, but it's kinda silly, since it's a place where I go to be whatever me I want to be at the time: pirate, artist, pundit, musician, worker-bee, friend, enemy, link-whore, whatever.
Now, I wish that being me was as interesting as being Rachel, but whaddayagonnado?
With blogs I enjoy the interaction of comments (lately I've been so busy my commenting has been greatly decreased which is rather sad). I love reading blogs that are intelligently written by someone with a specialty - such as yours. I love Glenn's blog because it is such a font of continuing information and I'm simply amazed at how many things I find out from his excellent linkage. Rachel is another blogger I've long admired for the same reasons you do.
Many of my favorite bloggers are those who can blog humorously. I'm so left-brain technical minded - I have a difficult time blogging humorously (or when someone does tell me a post is funny - I look in vain to see why they think it is...). In any case, it's a trait I wish I had and that draws me to their blogs.
As for my blog - I just feel the need to blather. I'm not particularly good at it and I'm not the sort to draw an audience... yet I can't quite seem to stop. The best part is - people can ignore me if they so wish - unlike at a party where someone talks on incessantly and you can't walk away without appearing rude. *grin*
My blog is much like me, only without the filters on my mouth that I developed prior to having children. I like geek stuff, funny stuff, political stuff and weird, eclectic stuff. Strangely, my blog echoes all of those things. However, I wish that I had the gift of writing like Rachel Lucas or Michele Catalano. They can post about the most pedestrian topics and I not only read it, I check back later to read the updates and/or comments.
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