Blogger, Blogger

Monday March 03, 2008

Blogs are this millennium’s CB radio. Think about it. The low cost, exclusive lingo and high chatter of blogs are creating the same democratic mass media as Citizen Band (CB) radios did in the 1970s. For those of you too young to remember or too Northern to admit, CB radios were huge in the mid ‘70s—particularly here in the South. Sales peaked around seven million per year and you could hear white noise in your sleep. Similarly, blogs outpace enterprise sites, sprouting up faster than South of The Border billboards. In December 2007, Technorati reported over 112 million blogs and growing. Reasons? We need an expression of community and sense of empowerment. Blogs provide advice, introduce strangers, give front line accounts and break new fads. Just like CBs gave Joe Six Pack a voice, blogs make everyone a reporter, commentator, critic and Internet phenom.

Technology puts the hammer down

CBs grew with the help of rapid advancement in solid-state technology. The weight, size and cost of radios decreased allowing good buddies and lot lizards to keep on truckin’. In a few short years, mini broadcasters became more advanced, more powerful, created a more tight-knit community and caused more headaches for The Man.

Advanced social media technology has created the same power grid on a global scale. Now blogs are set up in minutes broadcasting chatter on every conceivable subject (plenty of unconceivable ones too!). Early Weblog services like CompuServe, Usenet and Genie are dusted by turbotools like WordPress, Movable Type and Blogger. Updates became speedy and publishing became practical to a larger, less technical population. Blogging combined with permalinks, blogrolls and TrackBacks keep bloggers’ pushing their pedals to the metal.

Handle with secrecy

The CB allowed people to interact in a safe, unreal manner. The anonymity helped lonely squawkers develop fantastic, more memorable identities. Creating a pseudonym or “handle” gave them an alter ego. From the lollipop mic, mild-mannered Eugene transformed into the Blacktop Death Warrior. Fantasy crushes bloomed and love crackled on the airwaves. Couples coupled and threads of “interaction” (wink, wink) happened along the way.

Blogs are no different. The 21st century handle is the avatar, a Hindu reference to fantastic godly incarnation. Avatars allow the pseudonymous Web user to illustrate something memorable while staying safely anonymous. Bloggers can talk smack globally regardless of qualifications. They’re producing more candid and sensational content than ever and mainstream media is in the convoy. National news broadcasts and dailies regularly reference personal Webcasters as reporters seek insiders through searches. But, it’s a mighty big, crowded road. While bloggers cast for readers, they must keep their ears on to maintain consistency and relevance. That, combined with anonymous exhibitionism makes controversial bloggers crash servers due to volume. Their sensationalism is rewarded superstar-like status. One day you go to sleep a gay receptionist nobody, next day you’re Perez Hilton.

Keep it ‘tween the ditches. What the 10-200!

In most countries, CB doesn’t require license. Early regulation was attempted, but umpteen restrictions led to complete rebellion. After all, this was CITIZEN’S Band, Bo. The people’s media! Neither man nor Bear could tell us how to act. Eventually, license requirement was dropped out of futility. This defiance fit the CBer’s personality and helped form an honor code of self-regulation. They banded together and fought back against the state, often...dun...dada...dunt...Smokey! Users looked after one another with alerts about traffic snarls, hazards and speed traps. While some good-natured seat cover gawkin’ was also happening, the honorable CBer discouraged on-air lewdness and profanity. That stayed at rest stops where it belonged.

Then there’s the blogosphere, the unhappiest place on earth. With the libertarian ethos anyone can start blogging without regard to age, citizenship, license requirement or qualification. In 2004, the FCC tightened wardrobe malfunction-inspired control on licensed media; fines shot up tenfold. Claims of Puritanism, censorship and shades of Big Brother were jabbed at the FCC. Meanwhile, unregulated Web media exploded with no authority for censorship. Sites like YouTube and MySpace allowed us to get our voyeur on with 1.244 billion friends. Traditional networks censored content, then posted the same material uncensored on YouTube. How many times have you been forwarded D*** in a Box? Like sex in public or Howard Stern on satellite radio, if you have no boundaries you can’t push them. Regulation is the envelope to push. Back in the day, Big Brother’s boundaries also helped spark the CB explosion. In this case, drivers wanted to go faster than the 1974 oil crises-induced national speed limit reduction (55 mph). What better reason to band together and outsmart Johnny Law?

In 2007–20 years after the first blogs were published–discussion of a self-regulated bloggers code of conduct started. Tim O’Reilly, Web futurist and coiner of the term Web 2.0, insists bloggers should enforce regulation on posters by declaring acceptable behavior. O’Reilly says, “We celebrate the blogosphere because it embraces frank and open conversation in ways that were long missing from mainstream media and marketing-dominated corporate Web sites. But frankness does not have to mean lack of civility. There’s no reason why we should tolerate conversations online that we wouldn’t tolerate in our living room.” He goes on to say, “I do think we need some code of conduct around what is acceptable behaviour, I would hope that it doesn’t come through any kind of regulation it would come through self-regulation.”

Ratchet jaw culture

Films like Smokey and the Bandit (1977), shows like The Dukes of Hazzard (1979) and songs like C.W. McCall’s “Convoy” (1976) spurred the romantic notion of us against law enforcement. CB clubs formed allowing ratchet jaws to jabber endlessly about dumb 10-200. The bizarre language continued to grow and evolve providing shorthand, anonymity and exclusiveness.

And if the subjects of chicken coops, picture takers and baboon butts weren’t odd enough, normal English speaking people transformed into slack jaw AM disc jockeys once on the air. Check out the final lyrics to “Convoy:” “We gonna catch ya on the flip-flop. This here's the Rubber Duck on the side. We gone.” I believe users loved the fallacious patter as an alternative to traditional pasteurized media language. It also served as “Hillbilly for Dummies” for newbies.

At least listening to incorrect CB patter was entertaining. Take a look at a few social media sites and weblog entries. Don’t we teach spelling anymore?

Blog slang developed out of bulletin boards and chatrooms. While many still use shorthand for fast typing or hiding secrets from mom, it’s now more commonly used in Short Message Service (SMS) and Instant Messenger. Portals like transl8it! are standardizing text. In 2005 with international popularity, transl8it! dxNRE and glosRE (dictionary and glossary) were published as the world’s first text slang book. I think the title should be, “Slack Yak for Dummies.”

OMG! Idts ask bff k? lmao ; )

The similarities don’t stop with invented lingo, safe pen pals and a sense of empowerment either. Blogs are 112 million strong, yet mostly jabber to themselves. “The vast majority of blog readers don’t comment. Ever” writes a professional editorial advisor to bloggers. “Most readers are lurkers.” Many authors don’t invite comments, preferring to ratchet jaw into thin air. One proclaims, “Given a choice between a blog with comments or no blog at all, I'd choose the latter.” I feel the need to snap at the end of that.

Admittedly, when starting this article I doubted I’d find any information on CB culture. After all, that fad burned out 30 years ago. It had no network, no digital infrastructure, no satellites and no global reach. Surprisingly, about 3.5 million are still sold per year. Confirming low tech doesn’t mean low touch. Humans want to belong. Even if they’re talking to themselves or just listening in, they feel a community. Perhaps the humble CB radio still has more to teach us about communication. Pascal Griset, professor of contemporary history at the University of Paris, Sorbonne suspects so. “As mobile telephone and computer use expands, one wonders whether the CB—a mobile communications system by nature, autonomous, free of charge to use—will become the prototype for tomorrow’s Internet.” More CBlogs?

Catcha on the flip.