Iwant2bfamous.com, no, Me.com, yes

I was amused when the local paper two days ago published an article on blogging headlined "Iwant2bfamous.com". I want to be famous? Come on! The higher you go, the harder you fall. That certainly seems true in Singapore where the authorities weren't at all amused when a  popular local blogger known for his sense of humour wrote something cheeky in a freesheet recently. Such nonsense wasn't acceptable in a paper read by the general public, said the authorities, though it might be okay in a blog with a limited readership. But I don't want to find out whether that's true by writing anything remotely annoying in my blog. It's better still to be anonymous.

"Iwant2bfamous.com?" Not in Singapore. And I guess that applies to plenty of bloggers around the world who don't post under the real names for fear of their jobs, their bosses, their colleagues  and even their families. "No pictures," that's what my wife said when she couldn't stop me from blogging. No pictures of us must appear in the blog, she meant, and I guess she was right. Better safe than sorry.

Is it possible to famous and anonymous? "How can?" as some say in Singapore.

The Sunday Times ( that's the local paper) was right on something else. It called the blogosphere "me.com". Yes, it's me who is blogging. I blog about things that interest me like any other blogger.

But does that mean bloggers are a bunch of narcissists, as the article asked? I don't think so. Sure, I write about myself and things that interest me, but isn't that the only way to write? Unless one is a hack, of course, a pen for hire.

And we bloggers write in our spare time, for free. That's another thing that used to baffle journalists. How can anyone write for nothing? 

I said "used to baffle journalists" because they are finally coming to terms with blogs.

Blogs are changing the media. The Straits Times, The Sunday Times' sister newspaper, in Singapore now has an interactive portal where readers submit their own stories and photos. The change came much earlier in America and Britain. The online sites of England's quality papers now all have blogs. They realise it's the quickest, easiest way to interact with the readers. It's so much easier to post a comment on an online article than write a letter to the editor. And the comment is instantly published without editing, unlike letters to the editor.

The Internet has been a real boon. Can anyone find all the information he needs in the local newspaper, the local radio, the local TV and the local library? Now there's Google to help us. And it takes us to websites. Many of them are blogs.

One last word on the Sunday Times article: It mentioned several Singapore blogs I hadn't come across before. Yes, newspapers are still useful.