Blogs, Hey...

Latest figures estimate that 80% of young people consume 'new' media more than it's predecessors. This means more people are reading newspapers online than on paper, more people are consulting weather.com than the weather channel, and more people looking words up in dictionary.com than in the good old Oxford. When I found out that one of my subjects was almost comlpetely focused on blogs, I was filled with both cynicism (is this really worthy of study?) and anticipated boredom (sure, web log, online journal, with comments, reverse chronological. Great. Now, the next thirteen weeks will be what?). However, being determined to like KCB201 Virtual Cultures , (one of two media subjects I am taking this semester, I also study law), because it is much easier to study something when you 'like' it to some extent (lesson learned last year after the horrors of KKB018 Creative Industries), so I approached the subject with an open mind.

Luckily.

I've realized there is loads of relevance, masses of potential and acres of value in these new-fangled blog things. I also realized my own consumption of them is quite high (how does a student of media studies not realize she is consuming blogs?). Admitting this feels somwhat like a confession of guilt, a sinful indulgence: I read gossip blogs. Vociferously. Avidly. Committedly. My day doesn't feel complete if I haven't snickered at the latest crazy antics of 'Tomkat', or wondered whether Britney is pregnant again, or felt more pity for Jennifer after seeing yet another picture of the gorgeous (and pregnant, poor Jen) Angelina. (Of course, in the blogosphere, I am on a first name basis with all these people). Some of my favourite blogs are The Superficial, I don't like you in that way, and, the ultimate and my absolute favourite, Go Fug Yourself.

Go Fug Yourself is a gossip/fashion hybrid blog that critiques fashion. Not just any fashion, but FUGLY fashion! Fugly is defined as

fug•ly (adj.)frightfully ugly; of or pertaining

to something beyond the boundaries of

normal unattractiveness. Ex: "That 'Kabbalists

Do It Better' trucker hat is fugly."

The website itself is touted as being 'fashion for bitchy people'. Oh the hours of fun experienced wondering why on earth Hilary Duff would get veneers that make her look like a horse, or what on earth was possessing Kirsten Dunst when she stepped outside in a bra-less grandma dress, or why Jessica Simspon insists on fake-tanning herself to within an inch of her life.