And why would you think they are?

Answer: Because you read Simon Dumenco’s column in which he somehow fails to notice the difference. Or, more likely (and more to the point), you read Doc‘s comments on Dumenco’s column. There’s a germ of truth in what Dumenco says. And since he actually asks bloggers to tell him what he means, I’m happy to oblige.

He’s feeling overwhelmed by everything he’s supposed to know and think about. By TiVo-ing programs that he then doesn’t have time to watch, feels that he’s not entirely out of the cultural loop because the show is at least residing on his TiVo disk. Instead, he finds himself reading bloggery about what he didn’t have time to actually watch and so he’s able to engage in the water-cooler conversations.

But why is this a bad thing? The truth comes out a couple of paragraphs down: People read bloggery about Dumenco’s writing rather than reading the writing itself. He does not say (admit?) that this is insulting. Instead, he goes POMO on us and says that this is “interpassivity,” like a laugh track that decides for you what is funny. Worse, Dumenco says that TiVo and blogs:

up the ante so dramatically and seamlessly, that they create an entirely different sort of interpassive lifestyle, one that’s, well, hyperpassive.

There are only three things wrong with that idea. First, (as Doc points out) blogging is interactive, not passive. Second, even if you only read blogs and never interact with them, that makes blogs as “hyperpassive” as, well, the writings of a columnist. Third, his reasoning about the seamlessness of TiVo and blogs is hooey. He thinks that, unlike TiVo, unwatched video tapes “constantly taunt you, reminding you of their presence.” Yeah, but not nearly as much as the list of unwatched shows presented to you every time you turn on TiVo. (His real problem is ontological – he prefers “a physical collection of information” because it “exists” (his emphasis) – but we needn’t go there, girlfriend.)

TiVo is a response to the problem that there’s too much to watch. Rather than being hyperpassive, TiVo makes every person a monarch in the Kingdom of Couch Potatoes. Think of TiVo as being your own personal channel.

Blogging is a response to the problem that there’s too much for any one of us to think about. Conversation is the ur-response to the same problem. Aggregators respond to the next level of too-much-ness. Conversations, blogs and aggregators all “up the ante” not on passivity but on thinking together.

Dumenco’s last sentence asks: “Did you read this essay or did you read about it?” Maybe we didn’t have time to read the column. Or maybe I get more out of it by reading it via a thoughtful commentary like Doc’s that not only clarifies Dumenco’s thought but adds to it.

Meanwhile, I suspect the emphasis in Dumenco’s last sentence was supposed to be on about. Probably a typo. No problem; I make ’em all the time. Anyway, some blogger no doubt will read Dumenco’s writing closer than the editor did, and will notice the error and help make the column just a little bit clearer.

Categories: Uncategorized dw