Blog?
note: custom link since it defaulted to */blog but that would just be the page listing all the blog posts so i changed it
i also play with footnotes here
What is a blog?
Dictionaries (or google most likely) will give you varying definitions, but there's a difference between denotation and connotation1. Before, on the old internet (which I wasn't a part of), a blog was a place where someone would share their wisdom -- whether that be about wood sculpting, mathematics, or gardening. Communities then formed around these blogs -- dozens of individuals who shared that same passion that engaged in thoughtful discussion with everyone else about the best way to hang decorations or whether the Higgs Boson2 actually existed or not.
Nowadays, however, the nature of the blog has changed. Of course there are corporate "blogs" with publishers and editors blogging about "7 VPNs to use in 2024" or "The 3 Best Gaming PCs to Buy for Under $2000" which focus on marketing products and make money through promotions. One could also argue that all this new social media stuff (Instagram Stories for example) can be seen as a digital blog, a way for someone to mark their journey through life. And then there are blogs like mine -- those made by ordinary people that feature poems, essays, books, notes, and everything in between.
But more and more, I feel (at least among the people I find company with) that the word "blog" does not capture what I want it to capture. At the very least, the word sounds old - when someone says they blog, I don't imagine essay-writing, but rather an old and outdated tumblr page with a picture and a few comments (Facebookesque).
Also, the word blog sounds slightly silly and goofy. Despite the fact that everyone has a blog nowadays (and I am not different), blogs range. Some are really just that goofy photo and a nice caption, but others, like mine, are slightly more serious. Calling for example, Eliezer Yudkowsky's blog and People3 both "blogs" (which is what we do now) is a vast generalization for what they do on their respective blogs.
So basically, the word blog is in my opinion too big of an umbrella term. Hopefully I'll create (or find) a word to replace the word "blog", so I won't be "blogging," I'll be [insert what word I find here later].
Denotation: The dictionary definition of a word. Connotation: The associations around the word. For example, the word cheap might be defined (have a denotation) as being of low cost, but the implication (connotation) of using this word is that the item is of low quality or cannot be trusted/relied upon.↩
The Higgs Boson is the most recently discovered particle in the Standard Model of particle physics. Basically just a really important smol particle that made physicists really happy. However I'm not sure in the 'old internet' whether there was any real discussion of this -- all the examples are made up but probably did happen but yeah. There may have been no blog discussing the higgs but it doesn't really matter.↩
The magazine, apparently also considered a blog by some sites.↩