Lots of round and round good discussion today with several people on rumor, gossip, the role and future of online media, and where it may all go in the future.  So here are my thoughts in true Generation X style (AKA bullet-pointed because I was raise on MTV Sesame Street, which means I have a short attention span, I multi-task, and I skim until engaged by content).

~Newspapers in the US are closing at an alarming rate

~Magazine readership in hard print copy is down

~Online sites are reaching more and more people daily

~Whatever content you chose to put out there and in whatever form you chose to put it comes with the knowledge that people will love it, hate it, or could care less. Blogs are like children, as long as you aren’t breaking the law, no one should tell you how to run yours. At the same time, if people aren’t happy for whatever reason, they will vote with their feet and move to their own media to express their discontent. It’s basics rights and responsibilities.

~For years the New York Times has existed as well as The Weekly World News
Hedda Hopper and Louella Parsons existed at the same time as Edgar R Murrow and  Walter Cronkite

~Today blogs exist from the Huffington Post, CNN, the Drudge Report to TMZ, The Awful Truth, and Lainey Gossip

~TV has everything from PBS to the Playboy Channel

~Movies have everything from Gone With the Wind to Debbie does Dallas

~Social media is so named because it reaches out and connects with people it has been used to reunite earthquake victims, fight the Iranian government, let the world know when I’m getting a latte, and sadly even tweet a famous author’s personal flight details

~For all the vast changes in technology over the last 100 years, basic human nature probably hasn’t changed that much, just the methods by which they receive their information has

~People still gossip, discuss, have opinions, get hurt by words and actions

So what am I saying? Even us lowly fansite bloggers have our range, let’s not throw all of us out with the proverbial bathwater because without us the fans wouldn’t be congregating the way that they do, connecting with people across the globe, meeting up with friends at conventions, and a million other positive things.  Without social media I wouldn’t have ever met four of the people I consider to be my best friends in the world. Thank God for forums, blogs, and for people who take the risk of putting themselves out there to see if anyone else is listening and to comment back.  It’s hard work, and the rewards for most of us aren’t ones you can put a price tag on.

Final thought as I wear my blogger badge proudly
Illegitimi non carborundum