I wanted to write about this a long time ago but kept it off until today when I read several comments about the Phil. Blog Awards. Yes, blogging is a privilege. It is not for everybody. It is only for those who have internet access. It is only for those who have enough time on their hands. It is only for those who have something to write or say.
So, don’t be surprised to learn that the demographics of bloggers are the ones who can pay for DSL on their homes and offices or even that Visibility or PLDT WeRoam. Don’t be surprised that these bloggers are the ones who have enough time to write and bloghop instead of worrying about their 8-5 jobs (worse, look for a job) or studying for their final exams and do their homework.
If you join our online community at MotorcyclePhilippines.com and you happen to go to one of the EBs (eyeballs), you will realize that 99% of them have motorcycles. And yes, that does not represent the Philippine demographics (i.e. not 99% of the country have their own motorbikes). I co-own that site of close to 40,000 members and I don’t even have my own bike.
If you join a Photography club and 80% of the people who come to photo shoots have dSLRs, it doesn’t mean the 20% who have point-and-shoot cameras is the minority group in the entire country. In fact it’s the other way around — there are more point-and-shoot camera than dSLR owners in the Philippines.
So, if you go to events that require you to wear formal attires, don’t expect that people attending it is representative of any bigger sample population. The ones you might be expecting are still in school finishing their exams, or still at the office doing OTY (thank you overtime). The ones you will meet are the people who have enough time on their hands, the ones who have gas money, or the ones who can pay for a taxi cab. Go to our blog parteeh and you’ll see that the demographics of the people there are totally different from that of the blog awards.
More than half of the population in the Philippines are poor. My parents are poor. My brother didn’t finish college nor does he have a job to feed his 3 kids. That doesn’t mean I need to find a way for them to blog and be part of this online community. I can’t, because they have something more important to spend time on other than writing about their thoughts. I wish I could, but I have to fulfill my other responsibilities to them first.
Blogging is a privilege, it’s not a right. Do not equate it with your constitutional right to suffrage or to get a decent education (hell, not even everyone has had education). So don’t expect that the blogging population is in any way representative of the voting population.
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This post sounds a bit harsh and I feel like I can’t completely agree with it. I think blogging is a privilege but should be made available to everyone.
I’d like to know what Manong Manbabalot would blog. I think he should be given the privilege to blog as well. Is it starting to sound as a right?
Right now, I feel like there’s a long tail in our blogosphere (if there even is one).
(I can’t resist throwing in my 2 cents, so here it goes…)
The word “privilege”, legally speaking and as used by most people, implies something that is granted by authority.
Rights are more fundamental and speak to our innate sense of what is good, proper, just, or “natural”.
Granted, there is an apparent confusion with these terms (”privileges” are sometimes equated with “rights”). But when both concepts are used within the same discussion, what differentiates them, I believe, is that there is an “authority” that bestows privileges; privileges too, are not conferred to all.
To wit: All people have the right to blog. It’s just that the “privileged” are the ones able to do it (this situation, however, does not change the nature of blogging being a right).
I’ve caught up with the entries and comments about this post, from all over, and I bristle at the thought that people include economics as a factor in determining rights.
That is a failure to see the overtly fundamental meaning of existence: to freely do so.
Yuga clarifies his point, almost tantalizingly on the fence. The champagne analogy, well sure, everyone has the right to drink champagne. But not everyone can. Everyone has the right to own a fancy car, but not everyone can.
Blogging is speech. It is a right, and is even more free than most other forms of speech.
Like blogie, I’ve said my fill.
Yes, I agree. But I am under the impression that this is an intelligent discussion (a heated debate at some point).
Boys and girls tama ng ang awayan ninyo. Wala namang mangyayari. This is how war starts and why politics thrive, nag aaway kayo sa walang kakwenta kwentang bagay.
I could understand if you are quarreling about life and death issues…but this is not one of them.
Leave it and go on….understanding and genuine respect for each others opinion is important.
Sorry ha,baka naman awayin pa ninyo ako…para kayong mga batang nag aaway. I dont want to even delve on the issues you are discussing palagay ko nasaktan na ninyo ang isat isa,sobra na so tama na.OK!!! Peace Man!!! Make love not war. Corny but its true!!!
I tried to explain the issue through contrasting comparison from the priviledge side but the comparisons from the side that shall explain that blogging is a right is just as compelling.
Here are two of the most common and basic rights that are protected freedoms in a democracy; freedom of speech and right to privacy.
If we consider that freedom of speech is only availed of by a small fraction of the population, does that make it a priviledge? Very few are given the honor of speaking to a public audience. Are we to say that only print and broadcast media people have that right?
The right to privacy is guaranteed to all free people, but the homeless people do not have the means to practice that right because of their economic circumstances. Does it mean that the right to privacy is actually a priviledge?
Let me throw my hat into this crowded ring. Blogging, applied as a general term, is a right, which denotes that everybody can do it, simple as that. If you want to blog about how your cat destroyed your mom’s plants, then go ahead. Nobody should take that away from you.
But to call it a privilege due to economic reasons is a misnomer. Call it an inaccessible right if you will but based on the sense of the word, it is not a privilege. One shouldn’t contain blogging from all the other forms of expressions just because its relatively new. Everyone can write, sing, dance, paint, make a movie, make a website, hence everyone can blog, hence blogging is a right.