When did blogging become the national pastime?

I don’t really have anything to say, but I refuse to be outdone by my fellow bloggers.

Whether it was evident to the masses or not, in the last week there have been seven new blog posts to the Gargoyle site (and they’re still coming).

I thought I was pretty on top of it with my one blog every two to three weeks. I mean, I’ve certainly got Glenn Judah beat with his one blog in the last six months or Will Jackson with his last blog dated July 13. But that Ren Vallazza, she’s out of control. And don’t get me started on Kim Hartman. 😛

Don’t get me wrong. I love that we have so many eloquent writers (and videographers) willing to share their views, life, etc. with the world. But when did blogging become so popular?

I remember something about it during the last Presidential election. Didn’t bloggers uncover the John Kerry Swift Boat Veterans thing? Regardless, I just shrugged it off like when they added those tags at the end of TV ads saying, “I’m Joe Republican and I approve this message because I love America.”

My old friend Wikipedia defines a blog simply enough: A blog is a website where entries are made in journal style and displayed in a reverse chronological order.

But what a blog actually is can barely be put into words. For me it is often an addiction, and with my lack of free time, can be a burden. But for some reason it is “marketed” as a blessing. Bloggers everywhere tout the grandeur of keeping an online journal. Journalism courses now teach it as a form of “transparency” in the media — a window into the world of the fourth estate.

Regardless of its blessing or curse status, blogs are everywhere. A quick search of the Web even revealed a Google search just for blogs. Seriously — check out http://blogsearch.google.com/ to see what I mean. They’re here to stay folks.

Although as I’m writing this I realize Microsoft needs to catch up. The word blog is not recognized by the spell check function in Word (likewise neither is blogger). I didn’t expect Google to avoid the infamous red squiggle underline, but blog? Merriam-Webster says it’s a word.

And I don’t know about you, but I’m more inclined to trust a name like Noah Webster than Bill Gates if we’re talking semantics.

What do you know, I actually did have something to say. Maybe this blog thing isn’t so bad after all.