Feeling stupid

I was prepared to write that I don't like vlogs very much. One of the joys of blogging is the click-hit-skim-link-off phenom. I frequently spend 30 seconds on a blog and realize that I don't like it. Kind of like a blind date. Fortunately, I can just click off the blog without having to make an illness, receive an imaginary phone call, or climb out the bathroom window. No harm, no foul. That's what I like -- the skim. No commitment.

So it's no wonder I'm not a vlogger. It's such a commitment. I actually have to sit still and watch something. I'm afraid to stop too early, because the good stuff might be at the end. So I end up watching MINUTES -- not seconds -- of video that, frankly, doesn't mean much to me. I miss the skim. I don't have the time or the interest.

Second, I'm not visual. They told us in teacher school that students have different learning preferences -- "VARK" -- Visual, Aural, Reading-Writing, and Kinesthetic. I am definitely Reading-Writing, with some Aural thrown in. I am NOT visual. So given the choice, no surprise I prefer to read, rather than watch.

Plus the stuff I watched was mostly pretty dull and self-indulgent. Yawn.

Then I met THE MAN as Colin calls him. He was completely compelling. I actually watched his video because I wanted to, not because I felt like I had to wait until the end to see if there was actually any point. I especially like when he described calling his wife, although I can't say why. I also agree with his point: vlogs seem much more commercial than blogs. And our media does seem to be controlled by Big Brother in many ways, as http://www.colinmcenroe.blogspot.com/. This is one of the last public forums that I can say "fuck you" without getting arrested or losing my job. Can't say it on TV, in the newspaper, the radio, or standing on a box in West Hartford Center. I think They will attempt to control the Internet and blog discourse sooner or later, too. Unfettered discourse is simply too threatening.


But I'm feeling stupid. First, for pre-judging vlogs based on my own VARK prejudices, and for not being as deep and thoughtful as the Man (who reminds me of someone in our class). Second, for not having a firm grasp of what quotidian alienation is. So I'm looking forward to class.