4 ms·

> blogging take off as a shared response to the US invasion of Iraq Blogging took off because half the worlds population started having access to the internet

by jiofih 6y ago

> blogging take off as a shared response to the US invasion of Iraq Blogging took off because half the worlds population started having access to the internet in the early 2000s. That seems incredibly myopic and US centric.

jacquesm 6y ago
I'd say either Blogger or Livejournal was the coming of age for blogging, the Iraq War had nothing to do with that, those things just happened around the same time without any direct connection between the two. The vast majority of blogs had totally different content.
- ghaff 6y ago
  Yeah, large-scale blogging was part of Web 2.0/read-write web which came into being around the time that it became much easier for "ordinary people" to publish on the Web but prior to the real social media wave of Facebook/Twitter/etc. The timing lines up fairly well with Gulf War II but I would personally never have drawn a connection.
astura 6y ago
Not only is myopic and US-centered, it's just plain non-factual, LiveJournal really took off pre-9/11. Around 2000-2001 literally everyone in my friend group were on LJ (except me), and not just passively/occasionally - regular active users and always talking about LJ stuff IRL. Even people who didn't have a computer at home! It seemed like it was just as much a social network as it was a publishing platform. According to Wikipedia LiveJournal had to implement an invite-only system for new users because they were growing faster than the server architecture could handle. This was all started pre-9/11. That being said, I didn't hear the word "blog" until the year 2003. Beyond that I don't recall the Iraq War being a major blogging topic. Sure, everyone has an opinion on the Iraq War, but how many blog posts can the average person actually write about their feelings on the Iraq War? Can't be more than a few, not a topic that's going to keep the masses activity blogging. To say blogging was a "shared response" to the invasion of Iraq is just... bizarre.
- techer 6y ago
  Maybe vaguely referring to Salam Pax. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Pax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Pax Iraqi blogger.
  - astura 6y ago
    The claim was not "there was several popular blogs that dealt with the topic of the Iraq War." The quote in full >Why did blogging take off as a shared response to the US invasion of Iraq? (When “the Internet became an ideal valve to release opinions,” she writes, “who didn’t have an opinion on the Iraq war?”) Basically claiming that blogging became popular because everyone wanted to share their opinion on the Iraq War. That's just not factual and, quite frankly, ridiculous.
- MultusSalus 6y ago
  > how many blog posts can the average person write about their feelings on the Iraq War? A books worth: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/deepdish/ebooks/i-was-wrong/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/deepdish/ebooks/i-was-wrong/
  - astura 6y ago
    We are talking about the masses of Average Joes here.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

by jiofih 6y ago

jacquesm 6y ago

I'd say either Blogger or Livejournal was the coming of age for blogging, the Iraq War had nothing to do with that, those things just happened around the same time without any direct connection between the two. The vast majority of blogs had totally different content.

ghaff 6y ago
Yeah, large-scale blogging was part of Web 2.0/read-write web which came into being around the time that it became much easier for "ordinary people" to publish on the Web but prior to the real social media wave of Facebook/Twitter/etc. The timing lines up fairly well with Gulf War II but I would personally never have drawn a connection.

astura 6y ago

Not only is myopic and US-centered, it's just plain non-factual, LiveJournal really took off pre-9/11. Around 2000-2001 literally everyone in my friend group were on LJ (except me), and not just passively/occasionally - regular active users and always talking about LJ stuff IRL. Even people who didn't have a computer at home! It seemed like it was just as much a social network as it was a publishing platform. According to Wikipedia LiveJournal had to implement an invite-only system for new users because they were growing faster than the server architecture could handle. This was all started pre-9/11. That being said, I didn't hear the word "blog" until the year 2003. Beyond that I don't recall the Iraq War being a major blogging topic. Sure, everyone has an opinion on the Iraq War, but how many blog posts can the average person actually write about their feelings on the Iraq War? Can't be more than a few, not a topic that's going to keep the masses activity blogging. To say blogging was a "shared response" to the invasion of Iraq is just... bizarre.

techer 6y ago
Maybe vaguely referring to Salam Pax. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Pax https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salam_Pax Iraqi blogger.
- astura 6y ago
  The claim was not "there was several popular blogs that dealt with the topic of the Iraq War." The quote in full >Why did blogging take off as a shared response to the US invasion of Iraq? (When “the Internet became an ideal valve to release opinions,” she writes, “who didn’t have an opinion on the Iraq war?”) Basically claiming that blogging became popular because everyone wanted to share their opinion on the Iraq War. That's just not factual and, quite frankly, ridiculous.
MultusSalus 6y ago
> how many blog posts can the average person write about their feelings on the Iraq War? A books worth: http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/deepdish/ebooks/i-was-wrong/ http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/deepdish/ebooks/i-was-wrong/
- astura 6y ago
  We are talking about the masses of Average Joes here.

deleted 6y ago

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