Something I've noticed...
Okay, this is the last post for today, I swear. The evolution of blogging as a medium of expression is mildly interesting, something I don't have time to find extremely interesting. But I will say this. Have you noticed that most blogs (on blogger, anyway) have real titles these days? Watch the "Blogs Updated At..." list. It used to include lots and lots of blogs with names that sort of trailed off or were just collections of symbols or whatever. Now, the vast majority have names that sound more like titles or identities: Vast Wasteland, Life Oh Life, Personalized Kids Books, just to name a few that went by in the last few seconds.
I have two theories:
1. People just rambling on about their lives have left Blogger in favor of some other blogging space. I think, and this might sound a little mean, but it's not intended to be, that many of the bloggers with the trailing-off kind of titles were teenagers, and maybe now that more of the social networking sites also include blogging, they've left blogger for those sites. Maybe different blogging sites attract different kinds of bloggers, or people who blog for different purposes.
2. Maybe blogging is maturing as a writing genre. I think most people are more likely to explore a random blog with an actual title than they are to click on a random blog with no real title. This could drive an evolution towards creating a distinct identity for one's blog by giving it a memorable title.
3. Both.
I have two theories:
1. People just rambling on about their lives have left Blogger in favor of some other blogging space. I think, and this might sound a little mean, but it's not intended to be, that many of the bloggers with the trailing-off kind of titles were teenagers, and maybe now that more of the social networking sites also include blogging, they've left blogger for those sites. Maybe different blogging sites attract different kinds of bloggers, or people who blog for different purposes.
2. Maybe blogging is maturing as a writing genre. I think most people are more likely to explore a random blog with an actual title than they are to click on a random blog with no real title. This could drive an evolution towards creating a distinct identity for one's blog by giving it a memorable title.
3. Both.
posted by ms. v. at 1:13 PM
5 Comments:
Blogging styles could easily be memeticly evolving. As people hit the "Next Blog" button (which I think many people indulge in) their nervous systems are being primed by the pages they see. The title has long been an integral part of communication, so as an information structure it has high fitness in the jungle that is our social memetic consciousness. Catchy well formed titles make a stronger impression and are more likely to be replicated.
Blogs can be the virtual being of emotions, awareness, and/or service. Some of the titles really crack me up, yet like you say, I often just pass them by like walking past someone on the street. Maybe you can't judge a book by its cover, but you can know one by its title. Likewise blogs. Some of the unknowable blog titles are maybe from people who are just waiting for the right title idea to come along.
With the blog title of Fred's World, I'm either very boring, or a narcissist.
I couldn't think of anything else for my blog title! I use my blog to practice writing so I'm not so uncomfortable when I teach it. So I tried to choose a title that would reflect the content. It only does about 1/8 of the time...Why did you choose Ms. Frizzle?
I think the title should give the visitor an idea of what the site is about. The title is a few-second representation of what follows. So, if a word or words in the title catch the interest of a viewer they will read on. A short description after the title can expand this interest further.
What i dislike is when people use titles specifically to grab attention, but don't have even slightly related content. I was searching for information about iPods, and alot of sites I found had iPod in the title and porn or other filth for content.
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