Blilionaire blogger, Mark Cuban recently wrote, “The Internet is Boring. It’s old news.” Perhaps it is, but the people found therein are far from boring, or old news. By putting the power of the press directly in the hands of individuals with something to say, we no longer need rely on the filters–editors, agents, publishers and retailers–to access the material we seek.
Seattle writer, Ariel Meadow Stallings, reads over 100 blogs. She recently wrote, “Among my group of blog peers, there are very few of us who still write honestly on our blogs. In the Age of Google it can feel too risky to write about the juicy stuff, and with the number of trolls crawling around the web it can be pretty rough to bare your soul and make yourself vulnerable.”
I can relate, as I too keep my laundry mostly in the hamper. But there are others who air it out, and the more they do, the more addictive their writing becomes. Heather Armstrong is famous for presenting the minutae of her life, and the lives of her husband, dog and young child. In fact, she now makes her living by living as an open book.
Holly Burns is another writer not afraid to share. And like Armstrong, she’s wicked funny. Here’s a bit of her wit:
Q. What would you say to President Bush if you could speak to him for 30 minutes?
A. I’m not sure I could stand to be in the same room as him for 30 minutes. Could we do it behind glass, with one of those prison telephones? Because then I’d probably give him a whistlestop crash course in grammar, and hold up flash cards to quiz him on pronounciation. I’d tell him to just step down already, and I’d probably use the word “smarmy.” Maybe I’d also use one of my rudimentary Cantonese phrases. And not “please stop the bus.”
Here’s more of her prose styling:
My name is Holly Burns. I currently live in Charleston, South Carolina — though sort of by accident. It’s very pretty and the lemonade is good and I totally love how everyone is named after streets and has a set of monogrammed notecards, but I do sometimes look at my driver’s license and think OH MY GOD, I LIVE IN SOUTH CAROLINA.
Burns and her man recently left Charleston for San Francisco. The Palmetto State is now short one prolific and interesting voice.
Cuban’s provocative statement about the web being boring stems from what he sees as a dearth of earth shattering innovation. As an entrepreneur looking to make his next billion, he may be right. But I’m also right. The web is a delivery mechanism. Saying it’s boring is like saying telephone lines are boring.