Can we all just agree that blogosphere is the worst word to describe a group or collection of items that has ever come down the internet pike? I can accept "blog" as an abbreviation of "web log" because, god knows, we need to remove as many letters as we can from words or else the terrorists will win. We're a busy people, we don't have time for excess syllables or letters. Thanks to texting, we will one day be communicating like the cavemen with just a series of grunts. (See Appendix A)
But then we come to "osphere" which takes us out of the world of text reduction and into corporate speak. We could have simply added an "s" onto blog to describe the collection of blogs that now scatter across the farthest reaches of the internet. But no, we had to make it sound fancy and more important than it really is. Corporate America is more than happy to take all those letters and words that texters throw away and use them to make small words longer. For example, most people have "skills" that they use to accomplish various tasks, but if you wear a suit and tie, you have a "skill set." There is no appreciable difference between the two, except that some consulting firm got paid a lot of money to advocate the later.
If we had to go fancy, why not do it animal style. A group of cows is a herd. A group of dogs is a pack. A swarm of bees. A quiver of cobras. A bundle of frogs. A stretch of giraffe. And my favorite, a congress of ravens. Of course, knowing human nature, we would probably go with "A world of blogs" which would get abbreviated to "woblog" and bring us back to the same number of leters we started with.
Appendix A
Sample texts of the future.
?
?!
LOL
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