Here's My Dilemma...

I created my first blog four years ago, so by blogging standards, I stand right at the cusp of when blogging started seeping into the mainstream. My first blog was nothing more than an online journal uses primarily to rant about the displeasure with my career. I was pretty steadfast in keeping it up to date for nearly two years before I lost interest (the reasons which I'll get to shortly).

Around the same time I created a second blog with the goal of chasing my dream of becoming a syndicated columnist. Basically, it was a more in-depth extension of my first blog used to published full-length columns. I maintained this regularly as well, amassing over 30 columns in a two year period before letting it die as well. Sure, real life intrusions had a lot to do with my stopping. Namely, several job changes and becoming a father. But my main reason in doing lie in my disenchantment with the blogosphere itself. As more and more people were blogging about the same mundane stuff I was, I begin to realize that the art of writing, or more so, the romantic idea of being a "writer," became diluted for me. What good was thinking I had something to say, when millions of others were doing with same. It became too mainstream for me, and I lost interest.

The blog search engine Technorati estimates there are some 60 million-plus blog in existence these days. Of course, there are also estimates that upwards of 75 percent of these blogs consist of only one post. In other words, blogging as become a novelty for most, or, as the title of this blog suggests, have become similar to assholes, everyone has one.

But, blogging as also become a recognized form of journalism, and, this, more than anything not only blows my mind, but creates a dilemma for me. As a practitioner of public relations, this influence of blogger as journalist as caused most in my profession to rethink the traditional way of practicing PR. No, the press release hasn't gone by the way-side...yet, but the need to figure out ways to engage bloggers, is something I've yet to quite nail down. Let alone trying to come up with the right form of when, who and how to engage bloggers who constantly are taking negative shots at the clients or companies I represent.

Case in point, there is a notorious blogger (who shall remain nameless for fear of my job) who exhibits constant disdain for my current employer. His vitriol is unmatched at times, and while he often formulates his attacks in what I sometimes find to be an amusing manner, the damage he does hurts my employer. And, we can't engage him because it fly back in our faces. I know, because a colleague tried it once and was skewered.

But, I digress. My main dilemma remains, I can't decide where I stand on the whole next generation of the Web. This whole world driven by user-driven content and community interaction is one I yet to come close to fully understanding. But, my opinion doesn't matter, because it is happening, and what I need to figure out is if i want to be a part of it. Is technology truly killing the human experience? Is this whole notion of community moving us to interact with people of common interest that we are effectively going to create a society that is far more segregated than ever before? These are the things that keep me up at night...and as foolish as that is, I'm starting to think I need to talk about it more. But, I need to embrace it before I can form a concrete opinion. I need to seek out people with the same idea as the above; to embrace what the current world is, before I can debunk it.