Author: Web full of amateurs

The author of a new book called “The Cult of the Amateur: How Today’s Internet is Killing our Culture” is taking aim at bloggers. According to a Reuters report, Andrew Keen, founder of Audiocafe, asserts that the Web is populated by “exuberant monkeys” who are “creating an endless digital forest of mediocrity.”

I don’t entirely agree with Keen’s assessment, but he is certainly right about the mediocrity. There are many bloggers out there spinning lies and spreading juvenile gossip. I believe, however, that the blogosphere is able to weed out the crap and uncover the good stuff. Just as there are awful movies, awful books, and awful TV shows, there will be awful blogs.

But what exactly makes a good blog? It’s debatable. Popular gossip rags like defamer.com and perezhilton.com are clearly spun by amateurs with sub-par writing skills, yet thousands of users click on them each day. It’s doubtful that Keen’s own blog has as much readership as those two sites.

What bothers me isn’t his opinion that the blogosophere is full of amateurs. It’s that he seems to believe he’s some sort of superior intellectual. Still, there’s no denying that his concerns are worthy of discussion. Who knows if it will change Web media in any significant way. If you think about it, Keen is simply taking action towards what every blogger really wants: lots of attention.