April 1, 2009

• Serious Post (Promise!) on Perils of Popularity

  The great and mighty KBEAR!!!! decided to bully me into a blog post on an article she sent me. Fearing a mauling, I immediately fled to my keyboard. Besides, the topic is on one of my favorite topics, teenage girls** Internet popularity.

  Basically, this girl who did webcam shows and hung out on Myspace was visited by a hacker. He hacked into her Myspace and webcam channel and threatened not to give them back unless she'd bake him a peach cobbler like his mother would when he was a wee lad. No! Because this is the Internet, he couldn't be original, so of course he begged for her to send nasty photos. (Why are hackers, trolls, and extorters so unoriginal?!). It's a clear case of extortion, and the police tracked him down and arrested him. Full details in this article. Note: the article contains a somewhat sexy photo and some harsh language, so discretion is advised. Here.

  This article unfortunately reminds me of one of my beefs with the Internet of late. There is serious blowback to being an "out there" Internet personality. More and more, it seems like the Internet is dividing into a segment of MASTERS "leaders" who produce the content, do the shows, and entertain people, and SLAVES "followers" who watch the leaders, stalk the leaders, and basically spend their lives sitting around waiting to be entertained by another leader. But the sad part is, being a leader can be very dangerous. They end up becoming performance artists, or they become threatened by their more extreme followers. I intentionally curb my popularity on here (don't blog daily, for example) just to prevent it from happening to me. (I AM SO COOL THAT IF MY TRUE COOLNESS WAS EVER REVEALED, READERS WOULD BE STRUCK BLIND. BUT THEY WOULD THANK ME BECAUSE THE LAST THING THEY WOULD EVER SEE IS MY WORDS OR FACE (takes medication) err, I mean, I just try not to be too much of a leader or too much of a follower.

  One of the reasons I have stuck by Xanga is that it agrees with my own personal philosophy that each one of us can create and be creative, because God created us in his image (or, if you prefer, Scientus the God of Science caused high-speed collisions between gaseous particles that reverberated back and forth until suddenly producing Michael Jackson circa 1983). I know at times that it's tempting to sit on the sideline and just read/comment on what others write. I know it can be daunting to see someone's post and think "I could never do something that cool!" But look, I came here with no obvious writing gifts or talents, and I somehow have carved out a niche for myself and demonstrated some competence. I think many of you can do the same. Don't be a "follower". Don't be a passive, creepy absorber of entertainment. Strive to create just as much as you absorb. No, I'm not saying ALL followers are creepy stalkers...it's just you many people just don't have much time, I understand. But I'm talking about a MINDSET that one should adopt. Make sense? Now here are some places you can get more blog ideas and help with your writing:
  50 Blog posts in 50 minutes:
  50 Personal blog posting ideas:
  17 Types of Posts (more for companies)

  **I've "discovered" the strike-through button on my Xanga. Be very afraid.

  • 2:30 pm
  • 28 Comments