Erica Elliot on the ‘Virtual Back-Pat’.

Posted on April 15th, 2005 by Paul

Whilst allowing my tea to settle - that’s not a cup of tea, but what us Northern English call early dinner - I remembered what one of the important facets of this blog was…..

Robert’s students.

They’re all bloody impressive, but this particular post by Erica Elliot brought a wee smile to my face and offset the windypops.

What good is blogging as a medium if all we ever fill our blogs with are posts about how fascinating blogs are? Why is it that the most frequent blog post is a post about other blogs or how blogs are changing the world or how blogs are changing the field of communication? What if we all actually talked about communication, or maybe even other relevant information?

Not that I mind talking about blogs that are actually making a difference, such as the bloggers who found out a member of the White House press corp was using a fake identity, of which the White House was aware. Or when bloggers broke “Memogate.�

But really, blogging about other amazing blogs which are giving awards to great blogs which are blogging about blogging is making my head spin. Is there some utility in this exercise?

I would encourage my fellow classmates as well as my fellow bloggers to log on a post about something useful, rather than posting a virtual “back-pat.� Individual thought is a marvelous thing.

Great stuff.

I promise I’ll bring you more wise words from the Auburn Collective each week.

Filed under: Student Voices

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One Response to “Erica Elliot on the ‘Virtual Back-Pat’.”

  1. Steven, on April 15th, 2005 at 12:30 pm Said:

    Because the Brain Dead Business Bloggers (98% of business consultant blogs) and Mollycoddling Marketing Bloggers (99.99% of mktg. blogs) are wrong-headed wankers…
    …students will, I predict, see through them and revolt against such garbage.
    The Business Blogger Mutual Admiration Psychosis, with Awards and Lack of Profit Tracking, will poison them until they perish from sheer mental retardation exhaustion.
    Here’s a gem from Lipsticking schlock blog:
    [QUOTE] I do ALL my shopping online. Personal and professional. I don’t mind shipping charges because of the amount of time I save. There is no way I would be able to run multiple businesses and raise three kids without the Internet (and my husband too!). I love the fact that I click a few times and UPS is doing the legwork for me while I move onto the next task on my list. :) Costco, Office Depot and yes, Amazon (!) are the places I shop at most often. [END QUOTE]
    No understanding of online identity theft, ChoicePoint selling PIN and credit card numbers, phishing dangers, etc.
    Online shopping and banking, IMHO, are financial suicide.
    You may not agree with my extreme position, but where are the cautionary statements? Too busy kissing and patting each others’ stinky asses.