Mixed Feelings
Ronni Bennett contributes to a Washington Post story today on older people blogging, Blogging Through The Ages, by Jennifer L. Huget. Ronni, an author whose focus is on aging, will be interviewed today at 11:30am ET in the paper’s "Live Online" feature. Andy Borrows, and other bloggers with a focus on getting older, are also linked in the story.
Huget’s article is about older people blogging. She makes some obvious if arguable points. For example, she suggests that older people ("Seniors. Retirees. Empty-nesters.") have time for blogging that younger people lack. Maybe, but I think that writers will write and I know that there are a lot more younger bloggers than older ones. It’s not a very well written story, and it’s clear that it’s an assignment that doesn’t particularly interest her. I think my willingness to enjoy the story came to an abrupt halt with her use of a neologism, "elderblog." I enjoy Andy’s and Ronni’s writing. But I don’t even want to know what an "elderblog" is. If that makes me a curmudgeon, so be it. I have some very mixed feelings about this story. I’m pleased that bloggers I like are linked in the story, but labeling writing based on the age of the author seems like an opportunity to create yet another discriminatory distinction.
Today when you Google the word "elderblog" there are 216 hits. Technorati indexes no posts containing that character string. Let’s do our best to keep the hit count on that word low.