Personal Blogging,
Documentary, and History
When it comes to personal blogging, documentary
is
the default genre. There are plenty of blogs that
serve
other functions, but many blogs are primarily
catalogues
of the life experiences of their author.
Although there
are quite a few blogs that focus on
collecting poetry and
other forms of creative writing, the
vast majority of
personal blogs are in some sense
documentaries.
For many years, the act of making a
documentary was
meant to be an objective act of reporting
the sights and
sounds that the filmmaker, writer, or
photographer
encountered. However, in contemporary times
there has
been a movement towards embracing the
subjectivity
inherent in the documentary form. This means
that
modern documentaries often reflect the
distinctive
voice and sensibility of their creator, and the
fact that
todays documentaries often revolve around
personality
blurs the lines between documentary and memoir.
Blogs
rest somewhere between these two genres,
muddying
the distinctions even further. Personal
blogging,
documentary, and memoir are now
irrevocably
intertwined, for better or for worse.
Although few bloggers think of themselves as
making
documentaries in any formal sense, every
time
somebody sits down in front of a computer and types
up
a record of their day, they are documenting their
own
historical moment. The things that we take for
granted
about our daily lives, like the way that we use
specific
modes of transportation, or the kinds of products
that
we buy, often seem quite fascinating to people who
live
in circumstances different from ours, and it is this
kind
of fascination that is at the heart of many
documentary
projects. When people think about
blogging,
documentary is not very likely to be the first
adjective
that crosses their minds, but a few decades down
the
road it is very likely that todays blogs will be
seen
primarily as very subjective documentaries of our
era.
The people of tomorrow will almost certainly look
to
the blogs of today for insight into our
historical
moment.
When it comes to blogging,
documentary may not be
the aim of most people who spend
their time posting
their thoughts and ideas on the
internet. In some ways,
the documentary aspect of blogging
is more of a side
effect than a primary goal. However, the
fact that so
many people are interested in publishing these
public
online diaries shows that personal blogs are about
more
than just rumination. The fact that bloggers are
so
stimulated by and interested in sharing their ideas
with
each other reinforces the idea that personal blogs
are, in
some ways, documentaries meant for
public
consumption. Documentaries appeal to people who
are
curious about other ways of life, and many people
who
regularly read others personal blogs are looking for
this
same kind of new perspective.
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