what to call the echo chamber?

Logic Emotion: The Blogging "Elite"

"Here's my beef with elitism.  Considering yourself an elite means that you feel like you are superior to others.  Once you begin to feel superior, you begin to dismiss the validity that others can bring to the table.  You desire to surround yourself with people "just like you".  It becomes increasingly important to be accepted by these people who's opinions matter to you.  The opinions of the "non-elite" begin to matter less to you even though you say the opposite."

this is a thoughtful, good post from a david regarding a dave, the dave i am lucky to count as a friend and the david is someone i enjoy reading, especially for his take on design and creativity as they relate to our ever changing online experience - recently i too have pointed out how repulsive elitism is, specifically from those who some might consider a promoter of the classification: "a-list" blogger...

dave's been doing his sotb since 10/10/04, something i've always found very useful, especially as technorati's functionality and utilization has matured...

sometimes the lexicon just gets in the way of the message - look at doc's effort to eliminate the word "consumer", a valid concern but really hard to transition from it to something else that can be universally comprehended - especially by those who have used it for decades...

i think "elite" and "authority" have the same shortcoming - and yes i agree w/ you, i don't think dave was trying to create a blogging class system by choosing those labels - at the end of the day you have to chose some words that allow you to simply get your message across...

i personally have never had a problem w/ either elite or authority because "elite" to me was a sports analogy, like a select soccer team or and elite hockey team - thus a team made up of regional leaders in a certain sport, doesn't detract from those not on it but does provide a grouping - as for authority, dave always has spent time defining his use of the word - which he equates  directly to the number of links from others referring to their site/posts - again not perfect, for example, a true authority in a subject who has a blog which not to many link to because they don't post that often, but when they do it's w/ true authority for their craft, will not be ranked as that authoritative by technorati...

again, i think dave is just trying to get his message out and the lexicon he's choosing seems the best at the moment for doing it - thank god the a-list wasn't how dave decided to categorize these types of bloggers ;)

Comments

[David Armano]

Mike,

I really do see both sides of this. I'm not one that believes there shouldn't be any classifcation of blogs and that all blogs are created equal, because that is an ideal vs. the reality.

That said, I think it helps to look at the small percentage of blogs that break through as either influential blogs or even "leading blogs" vs. an elite class. The only issue with elite in regards to the team analogy or even military (elite special forces) is that we bloggers are not on the same team. We are individuals with very individual blogs representing personal opinions etc.

That's why I like the term influential... that can apply nicely to an invividual.

Don't mean to squabble over words here. Some of this is for my own personal benefit as I struggle with my own role as my blog continues to grow.

[mike dunn]

right david - concur, influential isn't a bad choice...

i do have a problem w/ elitism, guess i'm just less interested in spending cycles on lexicon and semantic differences of opinion, even though i did chime in of course :)

[David Armano]

"guess i'm just less interested in spending cycles on lexicon and semantic differences of opinion, even though i did chime in of course :)"

Actions always speak louder than words.

:)

Speaking of, I need to get to a Q+A post out that I have been behind on!

cya around.