When I started this site I was considered a diarist, and when I added a weblog I started to get readers who called me a blogger. I think what I have now is enough of a hybrid that I’m fine with both definitions. I’ve been friends with some diarists for awhile now, but I’ll probably also go to this bloggy shindig on Friday. Only there are some people who keep asking me what the difference is between bloggers and diarists, and well, the more people use Movable Type the harder it’s going to be to explain this shit. But I think there is a difference, and since I can’t seem to stop coming up with dippy high school analogies I’ll do my best to clarify.
Okay. Online diarists are the drama club at your high school. They feel that what they’re doing is either art or therapy, although generally the really fucked-up ones are artsier. They sit in little groups on the floor in the Student Center and there’s one group that likes to give each other backrubs. They only look like they are all having sex with each other. After a while you figure out some of them hate each other even though they still inexplicably exchange backrubs.
A few are into alternate religions. One is rumored to have been in a coma once. A couple always seem to get the good parts but they’re really fucking funny so it’s okay. The ones in the Ushers Club are the friendliest but occasionally a pain in the ass because they’re always trying to get you to wear some goddamn button that says: “THE FANTASTIKS FLY ON FRIDAY!” and you can’t talk smack around them at all.
Webloggers, on the other hand, are the yearbook staff. They feel that what they’re doing is really important and also might get them into a better college. They keep way too many CDs in the staff room. A couple of them sometimes pretend that all the CDs are theirs, and they know you know they’re bullshitting, but whatever. One of them will come up to you with a notebook and ask you what you think of the new computer kiosks in the library, and don’t roll your eyes, because, you know, it’s a serious question.
Some of them are in the A/V Club. Oh, don’t even get them started.
Others are on the debate team and loudly make fun of the theatre kids even though they would totally bone that one girl. There’s one kid who keeps changing the stupid display font in the Activities section, like anyone cares. And a couple of them are angry as all hell but get swell grades.
There’s always some crossover, of course–a drama kid padding his college application; a yearbook staffer scoring a lead role in Our Town–but otherwise I’m convinced that this is how it is.
Just don’t ask me what I did in high school.
