Karen Duffy Syndrome
For those of you who were, say, off in India going to high school and not around to know this, Karen Duffy was an MTV VJ in the early 90's. I once saw an interview with Karen Duffy, who explained how she came to be a VJ. Apparently she was simply watching MTV, saw a VJ, and just thought, "I could do that," so she applied and got the job.
I found this quite inspiring at the time. You see, I wanted to be, at age 13, a cashier at the supermarket. A lot of high schoolers worked at the supermarket and it seemed like the coolest job to me. But two things were preventing this dream of mine from coming true. One is that I was not old enough. The other was that I was scared I wouldn't be able to do the math needed to make change. Lucky for me, my older brother worked there, and came home to report that the cash register would do the math for me. I was still nervous, but then I found out some important gossip.
Aileen F. had gotten a job there! She was in my grade, not very smart, and a total bitch. That clinched it for me. I applied what I'd learned from MTV's Karen Duffy (see Dad, MTV teaches important lessons!) - if Aileen could work at Foodtown, I could work there too. That's why less than a week after turning 14, I was at the supermarket asking for an application.
The Karen Duffy approach is helpful when you need to inspire yourself. A lot of people do that with blogs, have you noticed? Huh, I could write about toasting my bagel too! That's what seems to have happened. There are a lot of blogs out there. The more publicity blogging gets, the more blogs pop up. Some people have more than one blog.
What I'm noticing now though, is that certain bloggers have gotten all fired up by seeing other people's successes and are determined to make their blogs that successful as well. They are trotting out topics that used to be kept private, revealing family secrets, and doing whatever they can to get more blog hits. It's as if people are sensationalizing themselves. They are TMZing themselves in an effort to get more readers.
There's something about it that feels impure to me. I think blogging is supposed to be cathartic. It's supposed to be for communicating with people you don't know yet. It's for keeping a record. Not everyone can be Dooce.
My guess for why this is happening? Karen Duffy syndrome. Everyone is looking around at the bloggers they think (because nobody but Dooce will admit how much they are earning) are earning a living off their blogs, and thinking surely they can do that too. But I don't think so. The blog posts written in an effort to draw in readers seem obvious to me, and ring untrue in some way.
I found this quite inspiring at the time. You see, I wanted to be, at age 13, a cashier at the supermarket. A lot of high schoolers worked at the supermarket and it seemed like the coolest job to me. But two things were preventing this dream of mine from coming true. One is that I was not old enough. The other was that I was scared I wouldn't be able to do the math needed to make change. Lucky for me, my older brother worked there, and came home to report that the cash register would do the math for me. I was still nervous, but then I found out some important gossip.
Aileen F. had gotten a job there! She was in my grade, not very smart, and a total bitch. That clinched it for me. I applied what I'd learned from MTV's Karen Duffy (see Dad, MTV teaches important lessons!) - if Aileen could work at Foodtown, I could work there too. That's why less than a week after turning 14, I was at the supermarket asking for an application.
The Karen Duffy approach is helpful when you need to inspire yourself. A lot of people do that with blogs, have you noticed? Huh, I could write about toasting my bagel too! That's what seems to have happened. There are a lot of blogs out there. The more publicity blogging gets, the more blogs pop up. Some people have more than one blog.
What I'm noticing now though, is that certain bloggers have gotten all fired up by seeing other people's successes and are determined to make their blogs that successful as well. They are trotting out topics that used to be kept private, revealing family secrets, and doing whatever they can to get more blog hits. It's as if people are sensationalizing themselves. They are TMZing themselves in an effort to get more readers.
There's something about it that feels impure to me. I think blogging is supposed to be cathartic. It's supposed to be for communicating with people you don't know yet. It's for keeping a record. Not everyone can be Dooce.
My guess for why this is happening? Karen Duffy syndrome. Everyone is looking around at the bloggers they think (because nobody but Dooce will admit how much they are earning) are earning a living off their blogs, and thinking surely they can do that too. But I don't think so. The blog posts written in an effort to draw in readers seem obvious to me, and ring untrue in some way.
Labels: Cash Flow, Harshing Your Mellow, Interactive, Overthinking, People watching
posted by Green at 8/20/2008 02:30:00 PM
5 Comments:
agreed!
Or some may have been "encouraged" to start their own blog after leaving "excessive" comments on someone else's blog and being accused of "hijacking" said blog. No one I know...just sayin'
When I was about that age (13) I couldn't wait to work at Contempo Casuals in the Stonestown mall.
Well, now that I know who Karen Duffy is... dude... what, you didn't totally love my divorce saga? Hmmm, when I come back out of my hiatus (WTF am I doing here??? It just happened... I don't know how) I just might have to blog about toasting bagels. Except I don't eat bagels often. And my toaster is too small for it anyway. What a freaking dilemma...
YES!
I once read someone's blog post about how to create a successful blog. I was like, "You aren't writing because no one in your life is still willing to listen? Interesting."
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