In a recent edition of the Missoulian, the syndicated columnist Connie Schultz had this to say:
“Most men, it seems, still determine their worth as human beings by the number of zeros in their take-home pay. Some women buy into this; others don’t. Hence the latest flurry of stories and blogs about high-earning women insisting their husbands must make more than they do or lamenting that they can’t find men who make less and don’t care.”
Point taken but are there really “blogs” about “high-earning women insisting their husbands must make more than they do or lamenting that they can’t find men who make less and don’t care”? That is, there are entire websites consisting of reverse-chronological-order posts devoted to this subject?
Or are there posts along these lines on such web sites?
As the title says, Margin Notes is a blog, and this portion of the blog that you are reading right now is a blog post. Calling this article or entry or whatever other term you want to use a “blog” is like calling Connie Schultz’s column a “newspaper.”
But it’s happening more and more. Aside from being an imprecise term, I think there is also some faint derision in this usage, or at least a sort of encapsulated refusal to understand what a blog really is.
It’s like the mainstream, non-online media has finally accepted that they are going to sometimes have to talk about these things called “blogs,” and while they’ve finally gotten to the point where they can say the word without gagging on it, they’re sure not going to waste any time trying to understand any fine points about the medium.
After all, they’re counting on people realizing in another year or two how much of a waste of time blogs are, switching off the internet, and going back to reading stuff that really matters, like newspapers and magazines, and maybe even watching the five o’clock news.
Maybe they’re right. In the meantime, however, join me in making a stand for precision in language.
Repeat after me: The website thingy is a blog. The things on it are blog posts.
(Also, the past tense of “lead” is “led,” not “lead.”)