Taking a Step Back

While perusing amazon.com the other day and attempting to find some good rugby books, I stumbled across a book called the cult of the amateur; how today’s internet is killing our culture by Andrew Keen. I was intrigued by the title so I decided to read some excerpts from it. While the ideas and opinions presented do not relate specifically to rugby, the text highlights some important questions about the reach, accuracy, and goals of a blog like The Rugby Pitch.

The basic premise of the book is that internet sites with functions such as blogging, video posting, and social networking are creating an atmosphere where authentic, traditional forms of media are being abandoned in favor of “uninformed political commentary...unseemly home videos,” and “unreadable poems, reviews, essays, and novels” (Keen 3). In other words he is saying that most of the things placed on the web are useless, unjustified, and meaningless. He also claims that “Blogs have become so dizzingly infinite that they’ve undermined our sense of what is true and what is false” (3), drawing attention to the numerous blogs posted on sites such as blogspot.com. Lastly, he calls internet users “monkeys” (2), which in my opinion is simply rude.

While it may be true that blogs are often times uninformed and meaningless, Keen does not take into account that many blogs fail for just these reasons. Keen’s assertion that people (or monkeys, rather) read anything placed before them is unfounded. People in general do not read what does not interest them, bar schoolchildren and lawyers. Also, I speak from training and personal experience in this blog. If I were to, say, lie about who won the World Cup, my legitimacy as an author would be crushed. Usually if a site does not have merit, it will fall by the wayside while others take its place in the public realm.

Keen also fails to take blogs such as this one into account when discussing the goals of creating an internet-persona. He says, in relation to social networking sites, that “they claim to be all about ‘social networking’ with others, but in reality they exist so that we can advertise ourselves” (7). The Rugby Pitch does not sell things, and does not make any money, and is not interested in advertising. A part of a network of other blogs, it is on the contrary devoted to the progression of rugby union. It says so in the About box to the right. It’s right there.

Lastly, Keen forgets that free self-help or contemplative literature has little or no place in traditional media. In the United States media for instance, rugby is not a popular sport. In fact, the Rugby World Cup received almost no attention by media sources, who sparingly offered it on pay-per-view. Places like blogspot.com are one of the few places where internet users can come and find legitimate, free information on foreign sports like rugby.

While Keen’s book is an interesting read, I would suggest taking it in with a bit of criticism. I think that on many levels he just needs to read some more blogs of varying types, although his attitude could definitely be fixed with some good rugby.