In this golden age of “conversational content” or “user-generated media,” a following of some kind suddenly seemed within reach of just about anyone with something to say. It was as if some vault in which the public’s attention was kept had been blown open and the looters were taking what they could. A blog about ex-boyfriends; reflections on Brideshead Revisited, vintage Honda motorcycles—all had their constituency. And thanks to search, it wasn’t that hard to match one’s interests with a new world of content. Some of the more prominent new bloggers were current or former journalists, trained to write freely and quickly. Technologists started their own blogs, too, unreadable to the general public. Philosophers, economists, scientists, and other experts emerged from their ivory towers to address one another and motivated laymen in a manner far more recondite than might ever be found in the mainstream media. Some would blog essentially for themselves and those nearest to them, to keep track of their travels, or as a kind of family journal. They sometimes called themselves “escribitionists” before “blogger” became the word.

Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, loc. 909