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.
