Who influences us is important because they impact our choices and, hence, behaviors.

Blogging, which involves bypassing traditional publication outlets and making our ideas immediately available for public consumption, is, according to Andrew Keen, “digital narcissism.” 1

If Keen is right, then Tumbler.com has 101.7 million narcissists, WordPress has 63 million, Livejournal has 62.6 million bloggers who are “full of themselves,” Weebly, 12 million, and Blogster, 582,754 narcissists. 2

If you do the math, it adds up to a lot of narcissists.

What about company blogs?

If bloggers are show offs who want to “strut their stuff” and “fly in the face of convention,” so to speak, then how do we explain the fact that many of the biggest companies on earth have blogs?

JPMorgan Chase, GE and Johnson & Johnson, to name a few, have blogs.  Does this mean that these corporate giants who encourage their qualified, and interested, employees to explain products and processes to us via blogs are narcissists?

I don’t agree with Mr. Keen’s assessment that people who blog, whether they be individuals or employees of large corporations, are “digital narcissists.”  It’s obvious that blogs with quality content can do wonders for public relations that advertisement dollars simply cannot buy.  If this were not the case, the largest companies on earth wouldn’t have blogs.

A new communications trend

I believe that bloggers are people who have understood the new trend in communications.  Far from being “digital narcissists” or “digital mavericks,” they are individuals who are able to take advantage of the “new parlance,” the “new speak” of modern expression that is:  well-crafted, instant, contains quality content, and offers relevant information.

Image Source:  Progressive Buddhism: Narcissism

progressivebuddhism.blogspot.com/2011/01/narcissism.html

References

1 Strickland, Jonathan. “How Web 2.0 Works.” howstuffworks. 5. Accessed on September 19, 2013. http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-204.htm

2 Pangburn, Eric. “How Many Blogs Are There?” Snitchim.com. Published on April 7, 2013.  Accessed on September 19, 2013. http://snitchim.com/how-many-blogs-are-there/