While actual numbers and statistics vary greatly depending on where you get your information, according to one World Live Web data source Technorati there are currently in excess of 112 million blogs with the estimated number of blogs worldwide doubling every six months. That's a lot of blogs out there to read!
But when will this current cultural obsession with web-logging or blogging end or slow down? Answer: never. It's only going to get more ubiquitous as time evolves with more and more voices opining on every fickle thought that pops into their collective craniums, and entering the infinite blogosphere by the minute, nay second.
The only thing that is going to change (that has already begun to change, especially in the past two years) is that the amount of blog readers (per blog) will shrink in numbers since there are simply only so many readers to go around for all those blogs. I predict it will be soon one reader to every blog.
But for now it is more than one reader per blog - but not much more - and so I am most grateful to both of you for reading this far on this Amoeblog (hi Mom, hi you). But I digress, Hey, did you see that clip of (Amoeba Music fan) Kayne West with Daft Punk on the Grammys? It and Amy Winehouse's satellite fed performance were the highlights of an otherwise dull broadcast that tried too hard to be all things to all demographics.
Speaking of TV watching, with the writer's strike finally coming to an end the average person's life will be enriched by not having to watch so many re-runs and reality shows, as they had to during the strike. But why, I ask, didn't the average adult (who watches approx 5 hours of television everyday) not think outside the box (pun intended) and consider other alternatives to TV watching such as picking up a book to read, listening to an album, chatting with family members or friends, playing a game of chess, taking a walk, or other activities? Why? Coz they're all hooked on the drug. Because TV is the biggest drug there is.
As Michael Franti so famously noted in the old Beatnigs & Disposable Heroes of Hiphoprisy song "Television" (see/hear below) television is "the drug of the nation, breeding ignorance and feeding radiation." For proof check the results of a recent UK survey of 2000 men were asked if they would give up sex for six months in exchange for a 50 inch plasma TV. Without much consideration 47% said they would. I sincerly believe that TV is the worst drug of our society. Which is why I don't own a TV anymore. Of course I do watch it when I go to friends' houses (like when I saw the Grammys) and catch things on YouTube but its not like having that time-draining, evil drug in my home. And since I quit the drug (TV ownership) about three years ago, I find my life more relaxed and enriched. And I sleep better at night.
It's funny, you know, I don't give this much thought. I have a TV, but can't afford cable, so it's there for DVD only. Yet when I bring home a borrowed copy of the TV series Rome on DVD, and then afterward discuss (with my partner) the actual history of the Roman Empire vs. the HBO version, I feel enriched. Alternately, the only time I really go out socially is one day a week to a friends' place (lovely couple); sometimes it's America's Next Top Model, sometimes it's based around Project Runway. But I go because I like the people and when the show is on, not commercials, I've my laptop and I work. Other than those two shows, I couldn't even guess what 'prime time TV' is in this day and age. I don't think much about what other people do when I can't see them, but I suppose the thought of people - millions of them - avidly watching repeat programs - 5 hours a day - every day of the week, it does frighten me. I barely have time for this long and superfluous comment, yet they've all those hours for TV.
Many of them, or others, must feel that way toward me in regard to the computer, the internet. Addiction, drug, evil. Whether it be TV or internet, I suppose that unless you go to great pains to elevate your experience, it can get ugly, quick. I'm trying to elevate my internet, no more wasting time on crap. But I suppose blogs will always be around for our way to touch base with our circle. A bit Alvin Toffler / Future Shock: since we're all moving around so much and never seeing each other, here's my blog aka life updates on wordpress, here's my vacation snapshots on flickr, and so on. As far as a news piece, record review, editorial? People will follow who they like, whether I'm catching you from KALX to WFMU to here, and all the other media you inhabit now along the way and now. But overall? Everyone a blogger, every media having its blogs? Saturation point, boredom sets in and many will fall away. If the internet really killed the 'zine, then I think we'll at least always have quality blogging. We'll need better ways to find what we want in this glut, O Google.