Blogoneutics - Consumeristic blogging

Over the course of the last month or so my bbff has asserted various comments regarding the statistics of his blog, i.e. how much traffic is coming through in terms of hits and page loads. Usually these are somehow associated with his perception that my blog is becoming a super blog, on par with Super-Christian-Blogger, Scot McKnight, or that I am in some way stealing his traffic.

I interpret the comments variously, but usually I take them as passive-aggressive manifestations of personal angst. The charges are completely groundless. For one thing, my blog gets enough traffic to make things interesting, but I will never be a Super Blogger, nor would I want to be stuck with such a curse. Imagine leaving a post and then finding within an hour you have a hundred hits: That would suck! How would a blogger ever encourage serious thought and dialog on a post if it becomes a mess of comments like that?

But what has struck me was that my bbff seems to be sliding down the slippery slope of capitalism and slowly descending into the muck and mire of consumerism. Yes, my friends! The blogosphere cannot escape the inevitable fate of consumerism. In fact, it is already all around us. Blogging becomes about generating hits and pageloads and traffic and no more about content or substance: In short it has been turned over the fickle masses.



The "success" of a blog is now dependent upon what you can give to the consumer. Don't want to give the Consumer God her due? Fine. But you'll suffer with low traffic. Muuuuuuhahahaha! (That's code for a sinister laugh, something that comes from deep in the chest finish, rises up in the voice, and finishes back within the chest.)



Thus this post continues my explorations into blogoneutics, and in light of the evils of the religious Consumerism that has taken control of the blogosphere and tainted her pure heart and chaste mind, I suggest the following words of Jesus:

Blog unto others as you would have them blog unto you. (Luke 6:31, Matthew 7:12)

Admittedly, I have taken a bit of liberty in my translation in order to make the verse relevant to our current topic of discussion.

The above "Golden Rule" applied against American culture shames us for our rampant Consumerism, whereby "I" comes before "neighbor." It changes the mindset and flips the paradigm in a culture obsessed with desire.



Yet, bringing things back to the blogosphere, what might it look like to apply the above variation of the Golden rule to blogging? A few suggestions:

Resolved: A blog needs to be more about the dialog that follows a post than about the post itself. On the surface, this may sound like consumerism: That a post is more about generating and stimulating the consumer. But au contraire, my good friends! For a loving blogger must find satisfaction in allowing his or her neighbors to write and interpret, contributing to the over-all growth of the community, rather than becoming obsessed with becoming a Blogging Super Star.

Resolved: Invest as much in the blogs of others as I do in my own. Learning of and from my fellow bloggers to develop a community of care and concern.

Resolved: To never dish out more "fill-in-the-blank" than I can take in return, and to always deconstruct with love.

Perhaps there are more resolutions of a Golden Rule Blogger to be added to the list. These are just the ones that I need to work on so as to be "blameless and pure."

Long live the blogosphere! Death to Consumerism!