Are blogs at the Tipping Point?

A few people are arguing that I've overstated the case when I say that blogs have already reached the tipping point. I can get into one of those "yes-they-have!" "No they have not!"  debates that seem so popular in the blogosphere these days.

Instead, let me quote from Malcolm Gladwell, an author and speaker who I hold in extremely high regard; whose public presentations and two books have influenced how I think and what I write.

"... ideas and behavior and messages and products sometimes behave just like outbreaks of infectious disease. They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us."

I had Malcolm's words in mind when I first wrote this statement last October. Blogging is a social epidemic. It can no longer be isolated or contained.  The rate of its spread may be debated, but the fact that the contagion is no longer stoppable is hard to deny, unless you ignore the history of technology's spread over the past several centuries, or if you think we are in no danger from dead birds in places far from where you may or may not live.

Comments

[Jane Genova]

But it is stoppable. There are many who have tried this medium and left it. Maybe the openness was a bad fit for them or it took too much of a time commitment. Whatever, the thing stopped. It's not getting started in those niches again. The word must be out that, no, you don't want to to that.

So in some areas of life, yes, it's been stopped.

A suggestion: Maybe tipping point if a misleading concept/phrase here. Maybe mainstreaming is better or even post-early-adopter phase.

[Shel Israel]

Jane,
The fact that some people have tried and stopped seems to me to have little to do with saying it has reached the tipping point. The fact that this is a new technology that can no longer be stpped is the central point. It is irrelevent if you or I stop blogging because blogging will not stop. Soe people on suffered mild palpatations from yellow fever befor recovering. Others did not get it. That did not mean that Yellow Fever did not reach a tipping point in which the epidemic could not be stopped.

[Gabe Rodriguez]

"There is more than one way to tip an epidemic, in other words. Epidemics are a function of the people who transmit infectious agents, the infectious agent itself, and the environment in which the infectious agent is operating. And when an epidemic tips, when it is jolted out of equilibrium, it tips because something has happened, some change has occurred in one (or two or three) of those areas. These three agents of change I call the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context."

In my interpretation of Gladwell's three rules of the Tipping Point I would agree that blogs have reached the tipping point.

Perhaps someone has already done the work, but being relatively new to the blogosphere, I'd love to see Gladwell's three agents of change applied to the blogosphere.

[/pd]

when he wrote "They are social epidemics. The Tipping Point is an examination of the social epidemics that surround us." - maybe he was lookin thru the 'broken window' ??

yes, its an interesting theory of gladwell's thoughts and idea bring spun into blogsphere !!

I think the theory is that the looking lens of blogsphere , if it were thru a broken window-- then the tipping point is certainly here.

RSS , blogs and feeds Web2.0 etc is an information overload even for the most seasoned of It folks. Ask someone (new) who has sub'ed for a feed . They see as 100 odd posts in the reader for that site !! S/he gets info overload.

Soceity as such has not yet reached the point to assimulate such volumes of free flowing information. On the other hand, Technology has not matured enough to understand Soceity and its needs !!

[Jane Genova]

You're right about its not being stoppable. But, from reading these comments, it seems that blogging might not have reached the tipping point in that our society is not able yet to accept this free-flow of information. Remember how society resisted even word-processing, then PCs, then the Internet?

I suspect that blogging represents such a massive shift in how information is put out there and the impacts it can cause, intended and unintended, that society can't absorb it yet.

[Tim Jackson- Masiguy]

I agree with Jane's last comments. I also agree with Shel's premise that blogging has reached a tipping point. It seems that the point of no return has been reached already, even if the mass of society does not understand it or know how to utilize it yet.

Blogging is here to stay and has already left a fingerprint that can no longer be wiped off. However, as Jane and /pd both point out, those of us who blog and live for the blogosphere are still the minority and not the majority yet.

It's not a hollow victory, but it isn't a total victory yet either.

[Jane Genova]

I am relieved to hear that Tim Jackson "lives for the blogosphere." Now that I have mastered this new medium (it's one of the few things I'm good at in my life)I too live to post blogs, read and comment on other blogs, talk with other bloggers, and read about blogging. Fortunately, I have started to make part of my living from all this frenetic activity. It's far too time-consuming to be a hobby, at least not for long.

For me, being part of the blogosphere is a whole new identity.

In fact, I have a theory. Here it is: I've been able to take slide into this new identity only because around 2002 I had a massive meltdown, followed by a heavy tutorial in Buddhism and a heavy dose of cognitive therapy.

All of that might have freed me up to be open to something as big as the blogosphere. Shocker: I was 59 years old when I started blogging -- not the usual demographic.

Since lots of people are cracking up, there may be lots more bloggers.

[Tim Jackson- Masiguy]

I have to get Jane to show me how to make money on all this silliness... if you've got a simple formula, drop me a line!

[Jane Genova]

Tim Jackson asked how to make money from this silliness.

Well, Mr. Jackson, if you have a golden gut for marketing yourself (indirectly, of course) you can do that through the tone and content of a blog.

That is, the blogger has to approach the blogosphere strategically, not just randomly putting stuff out there. Everything on the blog is meant to help attract business. I didn't start out thinking that way but had to go that way. Blogging was eating up about 80 hours a week. I had to learn to combine blogging with a means of making a living.

People who could use my marketing/executive communications services bump into my blog and email about what exactly I provide in the way of services and how much. That's called new business development.

I also use the fact that I have a blog to help me land assignments through answering help-wanted ads. In fact, more help-wanted ads are indicating that they prefer someone with a blog. Having this blog also provides a source of samples of my work. Often the help-wanted requires writing samples, which I email. But I also suggest that they can review my blog.

Another way I intend to bring in revenues is through selling ads. But I'm not ready for that yet.

As time goes on and I get a better feel for this medium, I have hopes that I can find other ways to use my passion for blogging to also earn a living.

[Paul Morriss]

I think it's reached the tipping point when people around me know about are doing it. No-one I know is. Some people know what the word means, so that's a start. I live in the South-East of England, so it's not some rural backwater where the internet has yet to reach.

[Jeremy Ballenger]

Wow. Getting interesting. For the record, I'm with you Shel. I just should have made my earlier argument clearer.

Blogging as a social epidemic HAS tipped, catching more people than any number of infectious agents like bird flu, SARS, etc.

People seem to get stuck on the whole *supremacy* of a particular idea (has/hasn't tipped, etc). Be nice if life was indeed that cut and dried.

[Work At Homes]

I think blogging is only at its begining. There are so many things people can create on blogs for entertainment then for making money. With the start of Web 2.0 tools and social sites this is going to fuel the blog world.