** My Intellectual Flakes **

I came across this short article and found it quite funny although rather cynical. Michael Gorman, president-elect of the American Library Association defined blog as

a species of interactive electronic diary by means of which the unpublishable, untrammeled by editors or the rules of grammar, can communicate their thoughts via the web.

I doubt that many of the blog people are in th habit of sustained reading of complex texts. It is entirely possible that their intellectual needs are met by an accumulation of random facts and paragraphs.

OK, I admit I am lousy at grammar. Does that mean I am meant to be a blogger? And yes blogs tend to be fragmented and miscellaneous, but they are not random. They can be organized to form more lengthy and coherent writing. His comments on Google is even more cynical and funny:

Google is, in fact, the device that gives you thousands of “hits” (which may or may not be relevant) in no very useful order.

Speed is of the essence to Google boosters, just as it is to consumers of fast “food”, but, as with fast food, rubbish is rubbish, no manner how speedily it is delivered.

I am just curious what search engine Gorman use. Within the morass of information, how can people survive without it. Considering the market share of Google as search engine, I guess majority of people are consuming intellectual junk food by Gorman’s standard.

Reference: Revenge of the Blog People! By: Gorman, Michael. Library Journal, 2/15/2005, Vol. 130 Issue 3, p44-44,