The Generational Divide in Writing and Blogging
tradition and novelty
I’m showing my age here but I’ve come to the conclusion that blogging isn’t writing in the traditional sense. Most of the material on Medium doesn’t follow the basic tenets of essay writing. In fact, if not for Grammarly and other online tools, most postings would be flunked if submitted for academic review. Employers will tell you there has been a generational decline in writing skills. I don’t think it’s an accidental correlation with the rise of technology over paper and pen.
This is not all bad. In fact, it may be a very democratizing development given the number of bloggers for whom English is not their first language. There are Medium bloggers posting in English as non-native writers producing high-value content who have my undying admiration.
Many blogs are the literary equivalent of a conversation bubble designed for quick entry and exit but little takeaway content. I notice when I comment on articles on topics I know something about, the author ends the conversation quickly. It’s as though they had just one major idea on their topic and don’t want to be shown up for not knowing much beyond that.
If an older writer writes about a subject, you’ll get the full treatise or nothing. Mature writers don’t write about things they have only a smattering of an idea about. That would be like trying to pass yourself off as something you’re not. Much of the blogosphere appears untroubled by such considerations.
Another trend with young bloggers is a modern version of stream of consciousness writing. It should be more than a voiding of the mind. The reader should be taken somewhere poetically, emotionally or literarily. Much online content of this ilk resembles the byproduct of a digital enema.
I don’t think my internal dialogue is that interesting and I’m certainly not going to subject you to it unless I feel I have something special to share. If you’ve done me the courtesy of following me or opening my piece, I feel like I owe you something worthwhile. My intention is to be a net contributor and that’s a reputation I will guard jealously.
For those of us not writing under a pseudonym, flaying your personal life all over the internet is more than a little unseemly by older standards. Sure, we had gossip columns ever since there was an entertainment industry. This disregard for one’s own privacy, however, is rather new and a hallmark of the social media age. What will writers of this genre do when they’ve aired all their dirty laundry? Maybe their posts will evolve into sexual fiction like Penthouse Forum did before STDs ruined the adventurous encounter.
Along these lines, the political writing of many bloggers has its own generation specific writing hallmarks. Instead of writing about the subject matter at hand, today’s blogger writes about their own extreme emotional reaction to the matter at hand as though that, in itself, is worthy of publication. While impassioned political writing is nothing new, the writer’s never been the story until this era. There have always been self-absorbed journalists but even they stick to a storyline.
The run-on titles that do not finish in their allotted space I see in so many entries are screaming at my inner editor that your piece is not worth a microsecond of my attention. Amazingly, many such pieces continue the same run-on through to the sub-heading. I know we’re supposed to be forming a supportive community here but these things I just can’t support.
I’ve been more than struck by some of the opprobrium I’ve received from some of the younger editors I’ve come into contact with. I submitted a piece to a humour publication I affectionately refer to as Slobber Mouth. The editor told me that my piece was “not what they were looking for” but he had a solution!
Lessons in how to be funny!? That’s right — he was going to offer me his course on how to be funny! And he added, maybe if I was a good student and passed the course, I could be added as Slobber Mouth contributor!
As a Canadian, I just about fell off my dog sled. Given our comedic gifts to the world of Jim Carrey, Dan Aykroyd, and Russell Peters, etc. I was quite taken aback. Canadians need lessons in being funny like Americans need lessons in watching TV or invading foreign countries.
I turned him down on his gracious offer. Not to gloat, Mr. Slobber Mouth, but I’ve performed stand up comedy in clubs and humourous speeches in Toastmasters. The piece you rejected was hospitably received and published in the Haven. Now, if you offer a course in becoming rich and good looking, I might have a look.
Let us also pay homage to the armchair economist who can interpret the day’s events with authoritative tones and little else. I like the ones that tell me if I’m not in crypto or blockchain by dinner time, I may as well embalm myself while alive because I’m going to be swept away by the inflationary bonfires of hell.
Thought dumps, publicized personal relationships, mood swings, armchair Nostradamuses, self-appointed humour instructors — these blogging roles favour the young. I hope the advice givers have covered their respective derrieres and bought some liability insurance. But if you haven’t, here is a stock disclaimer:
“I’m sorry but I can neither confirm nor deny the existence of a record to satisfy your request for information but I’d be happy to provide with an access request form.”
In the same way today’s “recording artists” don’t play musical instruments, much blogging is not really writing. If you’re of a certain age, being a writer was something to be aspired to. With blogging making anyone a writer, it’s difficult to delineate what that means anymore.
If abstaining from writing meaningless blather costs me money, so be it. There’s money in this world not worth having. For some of us, the title of writer has to mean something.
Maybe us oldsters will have to break away and form our own niche or tribe. In the meantime, I will concede the blogging throne to the young. Now excuse me while I get back to writing.
