*in which fi uses the word blogosphere and enjoys it too much*

According to Suzanne Moore in today's Mail on Sunday (boo... sss...), "blogging is the ultimate form of narcissism". Says the lady with her own newspaper column. Is this narcissism? Well, yeah, kind of. This is a website that exists solely for me to write about myself, what I do and what I think about the world.

But as I ranted rather pompously to my parents today, doesn't everybody have the right to do that? I believe that everyone has something interesting to say. Everyone has done something or felt something or seen something extraordinary in their lives. The reason the internet is amazing is because it allows everyone, or at least everyone with access to a computer (hardihar) to say whatever it is they need to.

And if it's narcissistic, who gives? You don't have to read it. If you find it boring or, yeah, think that it's egotistical self-glorification, then just avoid blogs. Stick to reading the ceaseless, equally vain opinions of those who are lucky enough to get paid for shooting their mouths off. Eg. Newspaper columnists, who invariably just say the same things week after week.

Not that I have anything against columnists. Hell, if someone was stupid enough to hand me a paycheck for doing what I like best, namely waxing lyrical about this and the motherfucking other, I'd be laughing. It just gets my proverbial goat and farmyard when people start slagging off bloggers. Inflicting the boring details of humdrum lives on the general public? Who's the guilty party? Newspapers with front page ads reading "What Joan Collins thinks is wrong with society, page 33" or a young mum from Sidcup starting a blog to detail the early years of her two children? How about the 3am girls in the sun, how about Sneak and Heat and Closer telling us everything we really never needed to know about some useless chav celebrities. Find me the person who decided that blazing red top newspapers and stuck up Daily Mail writers should have the monopoly on what's worth reading. Please make them tell me why their opinions are more valuable than the quiet self-expression of a million ordinary bloggers.

Another twig in the posterior of Suzanne Moore was how the 'democratic medium' of blogging has its heroes and nobodies just like any other form of expression. You know the ones, the famous bloggers who get hundreds of hits a day and break over into other mediums with TV and radio interviews about their success. Apparently the fact that not all bloggers get this kind of attention is proof that the blogosphere is as discriminatory as any other kind of media. "Some bloggers are more equal than others".

Well, no. Every blogger has a URL. They're free. Namely, anyone with a PC can have one. If you want to read the opinion of a famous bod, it's a page away in magazines and papers. Wanna know what Jennifer Aniston thinks about Brad and Angelina? Bam, right there on Vanity Fair. Wanna know what someone who isn't a superstar thinks about anything? Where do you find the opinions of minorities in the mainstream media? Where do you find the voices that haven't been sanctioned and censored?

In the blogosphere, dammit! Man, I love that word too much.

Yeah, there's always going to be the blogs that get more attention because, basically, some people write better than others. And some people do more interesting things, or live in more interesting places. Some people just have sexier html than others. But everyone gets a chance. Everyone can have a voice on the internet (or at least they will do once we've not only fed the world but provided them with PCs too) and they shouldn't be looked down for using it.

Blogging and journalling on the internet isn't a perfect meritocracy. The most talented writers will still be overlooked. Sometimes blogs are popular just because, well, they're popular. But out here in cyberspace, no one employs you. You don't need a degree and contacts in Fleet Street to sit down and start typing. Perhaps it is all narcissism, but I'd far rather people indulged their egos in the anonymity of a blog somewhere than in the distinctly bored company of their peers. I'd far rather self-expression was open to everyone than only the pretty people and the intellectual snobs.