Jason Kottke's Thoughts on Blogging

Jason Kottke seems to be someone aware of the net culture of his era. He talks about how even though he followed a few weblogs, just about anyone could start up a site and call it that. To him, what you did with it was what defined your blog as something worth reading. For him, like many others, his blog drifts between topics as he wishes, although he broadly labels it as "a site about the liberal arts."

His blog, however, sounds to fit more within the traditional definition, a website that acted as a log of the sites you found interesting, along with some personal notes. Over time, he's noticed the shift in how he and others use blogs, in which many of his old communities have fractured and fallen apart. Notably, before he had so many followers, he used to share details of his personal life on his blog, perhaps in the same way that we use social media.

I find it amazing how integrated he is with is own blog. Updating it 10 to 12 times a day, regardless of if it's a whole post or just an additional link, seems to be a feat to me. Even moreso, that he's able to make a career of this. I appreciated his notes on how advertisers even affect content on even a subconscious level, not wanting to offend his financial supporters.

Finally, in the era of clickbait media and outrage culture, I find it necessary to highlight this particular section:

Do you ever write to deliberately provoke a reaction? Any tips on how to do that?I've probably done this in the past, but don't do it much anymore. Provoking reactions is not that hard; try not provoking someone who disagrees with your point of view, that's the real art.