Beyond

Paul Boutin today claimed on Wired magazine that blogs are a 2004 relic that have been superceded by the likes of Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook etc:-

“The blogosphere, once a freshwater oasis of folksy self-expression and clever thought, has been flooded by a tsunami of paid bilge. Cut-rate journalists and underground marketing campaigns now drown out the authentic voices of amateur wordsmiths.

It’s almost impossible to get noticed, except by hecklers. And why bother? The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter.”

This argument was later described as "flamebait", and at least one blogger admitted that they had fallen for it.

If indeed it was such, then this would be tantamount to trolling in the blogosphere: An open invitation to the kooks to migrate from the realms of Usenet and various esoteric online forums to infest the alleged "tsunami of paid bilge" with their incessant idiosyncrasies and four-letter-word-laden flame-wars.

Is the blogosphere really destined to become a domain of Kadaitcha-Man-like supertrolls and macho insult-contests run by over-testosteronised individuals attempting to score points off one another by means of character-assassination and flagrant depersonalisation of lesser mortals deemed as "f*ckwits"?

Hopefully not: That kind of thing has its rightful place in certain newsgroups on Usenet and the like; but hopefully won’t be spilling over into the adult blogosphere anytime soon.

As mathewingram.com puts it:-

"I’m hoping that Boutin’s post took about the same amount of time as it did to come up with that Twitter message, because it has about as much value. Is everyone going to have a blog? No — and they never were. Facebook and Twitter are probably enough for many people. Not writing at all is enough for many people. But why does it have to be all or nothing? What we have now is the option to micro-blog (i.e., Twitter) some thoughts, post others to Facebook, share things on FriendFeed or through Google Reader, and blog things that take longer to think through. But I guess that’s not as catchy as a “blogs are dead, Twitter killed them” scenario."

It is my sincere hope that blogs will remain a focal point of online self-expression without invasion from kooks and trolls from Usenet or anywhere else. It would be a great shame to see this proud channel of online-individuality fall victim to the cyber-thuggery and neo-macho-egoism of the newsgroup terrorist or die out as a result of the rise of microbloggers. I very much doubt that this is or will ever be a realistic scenario in all honesty. The mere possibility of it ever being the case could be quite unsettling to some people though.

Do you think it possible? Is there any danger of an "asswipe-invasion" at any point? Your thoughts please:-