When The Bough Breaks
Following this, Yugatech, maybe feeling a bit defensive and a tad bit apologetic, has not one, but two entries that is in no small part related to "comments" about The Philippine Blog Awards circling the local blogosphere.
Big ups, but the timing is too obvious. Readers are wondering what happened during the Philippine Blog Awards, and Abe's entries hint at them.
So, if you go to events that require you to wear formal attires, don’t expect that people attending it is representative of any bigger sample population. The ones you might be expecting are still in school finishing their exams, or still at the office doing OTY (thank you overtime). The ones you will meet are the people who have enough time on their hands, the ones who have gas money, or the ones who can pay for a taxi cab. Go to our blog parteeh and you’ll see that the demographics of the people there are totally different from that of the blog awards.
These words read to either brush aside the academic nature of the blog awards, and cast it as a big embracing party; or, shine a self-congratulatory light on the not-so small sacrifices that bloggers make: to blog, is a privilege that one has paid his dues for. Yet to say so is to acknowledge one's higher ground.
And yes, bloggers in no way represent any relevant segment of the Philippines -- we'd be foolish to think that. In fact, reading Jessica Zafra's or Cecile Zamora's blog is to me peering into the realms of the elite.
When I was "attacked" by a blogger (and his minions) I told myself I wouldn't stoop to his level (which I did not prejudge, but was competently revealed to me). And I got the same advice from not a few readers as well. That said, the immutable truth is that within this small, irrelevant microcosm of bloggers, we impose pecking orders, as is normal to our lives. It wouldn't be foolish to believe it.
But this is where we most differ, Abe. I think blogging is a right. It is possibly the most free form of speech out there, for I can launch profanities and never feel embarrassed. And I can access the minds of complete strangers, and make their days possibly more interesting. Blogging is as much a right as voting -- if you make the distinction that only those with internet access have the privilege to blog, then our disabled voters who cannot make it to the precincts on their own strength need not vote. Not to mention the millions of Filipinos overseas. Blogging is a right, and to say it is a privilege only affirms -- engenders -- the same hegemony that an unsuspecting blogger like JJ would find to be provocation.
Finally, my own special note on blog awards, blog parteehs, and blogger get togethers: I am truly happy that all these things happen, for they do foster community and camaraderie. And the time Abe and his friends put into getting these events together are invaluable, and to them we owe much. Still, you can't please everybody, and that's just the way it goes. I can't wait until the next one!
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my thoughts on this on my blog
Amen to that, blogging is a right. They failed to consider the fact that there are a host of bloggers who use hosting sites for their blogs. We can access the internet anytime we want as there are thousands of internet cafes everywhere.
The internet is not for the rich anymore, its for everyone.
These words read to either brush aside the academic nature of the blog awards, and cast it as a big embracing party
That's actually precisely what was good about the awards, something I noted in an entry. For some time, the 'sphere was composed of exclusive little cliques whose members you had to suck up to just to widen your readership. For most, it was almost like mutual masturbation -- the only readers the less popular blogs had were close blogger friends; it was stagnant. Now I've got my own (inconsequential) bone to pick with how things were run, but congratulations -- from any source -- are in order for the organizers of this and similar events, because it has opened up the community a bit, although there is still a certain amount of elitism going around as a result. Pero one step back, two steps forward, IMO.
As for brushing aside the academic nature of the blog awards, well, I believe that for as long as the judges and organizers themselves are disqualified, it will never really be academic.
Very well said. =)
Hi Happy,
I didn't realize until now what a big deal this "blogging community" thing is to some people; I heard about some blog parteeh from Luis a few months back, and Gelay, who used to host me, was nominated for a Blog Award, but I didn't think too much of it.
Now people are arguing over the politics of it like it's the middle ages. It's so strange; blogging has always just been some form of writing for me.
I agree with you that blogging is a right, and that everyone who has something to say (and god knows you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who doesn't) should be able to blog if he or she wants to.
But I also think that blogging is, fundamentally, an extremely personal medium; you do it not so much as to gain entry to whatever partee, to get nominations for whatever award. You blog because you want to write whatever crap you want to write, regardless of whoever reads you or not. For instance, I find that it's an easier way to communicate with my friends rather than make a summary email of my week. I think that should take precedence over one's sentiment about some community that is, as you pointed out, decidedly elitist when it theoretically should not be.
I mean, it must be the shits to have gone through what JJ went through. But that's why I tend to steer clear of anything to which the term "blogging community" is attached; the term itself carries a certain weight of self-importance that I find unnecessary for something as basic as writing.
Ina and bullet have put it quite succinctly. i agree and empathize with you guys completely.
we here in davao do notice the elitism that is now seemingly attached to the manila blogosphere. i just hope that doesn't happen to us in davao.
"Elitism" extrapolates it a bit too much. Yugatech has always been, and will most likely always be, inclusive. His intentions were to make amends, but in the process (possibly less circumspect than he ought to have been) managed to acknowledge the class structures that are systemic in our culture, and permeate this subculture of bloggers.
What drove JJ nuts was that, in my belief, he had imagined that the democratic and inclusive nature of blogging would transcend the virtual into the real. That is impossible, of course.
Bvest (Happy)