"Why bother?" says Paul Boutin of Valleywag, in response to anyone thinking of starting their own blog, "The time it takes to craft sharp, witty blog prose is better spent expressing yourself on Flickr, Facebook, or Twitter."
Sort of reminiscent of Tracy Morgan on 30 Rock when he became a Republican and did a PSA discouraging African-Americans from going to the polls because "you could play two games of pool in the amount of time it takes to vote."
Because hey, the industry is tough right now, and Boutin would much rather the young generation spend their A.D.D. addled brainpower engaging in online activities that have no chance of ever competing in the Internet blog industry. When was the last time you heard anyone besides Mark Zuckerberg getting famous off of Facebook.
I read this nonsense this morning in my November issue of Wired Magazine. Take it from a sistah that knows: Twitter ain't all that. Cute. It keeps my writing tight. And Flickr is cute as well. It allows me to indulge my inner amateur photographer. With that said, nothing has given me the exposure (and satisfaction) like my blog. I wouldn't give it up for the world.
An attempt to provide contrary advice to the on-line masses. This falls into the "Do as I say, not as I do" category. But I see his point. The Internet has been largely adopted by the MSM. Nowadays, an independent blogger will struggle to compete with the big boys of The Huffington Post and the NYT. But do you blog for the traffic or the satisfaction? Is your blog a labor of love, or a money-making scheme?