The Big 'Yawn'

So I went to the blogger’s convention. First thing as I came through the door (after buying my tshirt from Barffie, and being too shy to introduce myself), a reporter pounced on me. Asked me this and that. I mumbled some nonsense, I don’t really remember what, and apparently it never made it into the paper anyway, which is just as well.

The Straits Times called it a yawn. I’m not sure what they expected. SPG to strip, drag expat at large out onto the stage area and molest him? Xiaxue to rip somebody a new asshole? Who knows.

Bloggers are people who are, by and large, introverts. After the Acid Flask incident, there is also a culture of paranoia in the Singapore blogosphere—and believe me, everybody there was very, very aware that the media was present. Nobody wants to get made a bankrupt. Is it any wonder that the anonymous backchannel was more entertaining than the audience?

In any case, I wasn’t aware that the convention was organized for the express purpose of amusing SPH reporters. I must have missed that memo.

But nevermind; in reality Jeremy Au Yong and Shawn Woo did all Singaporean bloggers a favor by calling the 2005 bloggers.sg a ‘yawn’. It sends a signal to the public and the government that there’s no funny business going on in the blogosphere. Boring is not dangerous or immoral or lawsuit-worthy. Boring is safe. Boring is something you would encourage your kid to do, considering how many exciting, unsafe, extreme things kids are interested in nowadays. And anyway, imagine, a teenager on a computer and he or she is not blowing anything up or indulging in some virtual gorefest. Just writing.

So thanks, Jeremy and Shawn. Thanks for not blowing the whistle on all us subversive, free-thinking types. Thanks for the back-handed stamp of approval from the media. You’ve done the Singapore blogosphere a favor.