The blog as we currently know it is very often a depthless complaint in which the blogger takes some famous culture icon to task — Britney Spears, et. al. — for something, complains about that icon, laughs at her, issues a depthless challenge to her to clean up her act, and then natters on some more in a smartass and depthless continuation of the original complaint. There are positive blogs, to be sure, like those that talk about one’s cat or how to overcome the difficulties to be found in screwing in a light bulb. Blogs like these — by far the great majority of them — remind me more of random momentary conversation that goes nowhere, or at least not far.
An unscientific survey I’ve made at random from the Internet of about 150 blogs shows that seven or eight of them contain content that goes beyond the level of personal persnicketyness or complaint I’ve described. That’s about 5% of blogs that address things like the arts, proper government and what it requires, good books, insightful films, the meaning of sport in our society, dance, and good writing. Thought, in other words.
For the vast majority of blogs, I propose the term “bloggerish.” The word already exists, but I believe it is a descriptive term that refers simply to the nature of the blog itself. For example, you read a short little article at some website about something of little importance, written in semi-literate language, that very often has a personal gripe at its center, and it sounds “bloggerish” to you. So, that’s an adjective.
My use of the term would make it into a noun. Bloggerish is the language that, in another context, would be called gibberish.
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