Language Avalanche

I finally read yesterday's NYT magazine piece about blogs, and how they straddle the gray area between personal and private life. The author finds two key differences with traditional journalism. First, editors. And second, the confidentiality of sources.

The second item may be a relic of a bygone age. Technology puts our fingerprints everywhere. In the future it will only become harder to maintain that priestly sanctity between source and confidant.

But editors, I think, need to find a place in the blogosphere. I was blessed with a mother who mercilessly redlined my school essays. At the time I was angry and resentful. But I have acquired a lifeline habit of compulsive rewriting for length and clarity.

On the Internet, night and day, untold millions are banging away on email and weblogs. The writing is rife with grammatical mistakes, typos, and complete absence of structure, or even punctuation. Every convulsive thought is recorded using whatever words are handy, and people click 'send' or 'post' before bothering to re-read what they wrote. The how of expression matters less than the open fire hose of words, blasting away in all directions.

Maybe language itself is changing, and old forms are simply being replaced. Maybe I am a relic at age 33. But I still think words have more power when they are wielded with as much care and skill as the writer can muster.

Update: I forgot to mention that the front half of the NYT piece is about blogs, sex, and relationships. Oxblog has a good post.