{"id":560,"date":"2011-11-07T11:59:09","date_gmt":"2011-11-07T18:59:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.constructonomics.com\/blog\/?p=560"},"modified":"2011-11-07T11:59:09","modified_gmt":"2011-11-07T18:59:09","slug":"andy-rooney-the-worlds-first-blogger","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/2011\/11\/07\/andy-rooney-the-worlds-first-blogger\/","title":{"rendered":"Andy Rooney – The World’s First Blogger"},"content":{"rendered":"

I would have loved to explain to Andy Rooney in 1978, when he started doing his bit for 60\"rooney\" Minutes, the whole blog phenomenon.\u00a0 I’d have to start with explaining the internet, email, laptops, and worst of all, the extinction of the typewriter.\u00a0\u00a0There would be no better sight than to see those eyebrows go up and down as I tried to explain to him what has happened\u00a0with those machines with an apple on the side.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

However, in 1978, I was exactly zero years old and Andy Rooney was more interested in complaining about\u00a0coffee cans and household cleaners than trying to speculate on\u00a0the fate of the typewriter.\u00a0 I can safely say that he and I were both rather\u00a0oblivious as to what was about to occur to our World.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Despite all this technological progress, or as Andy would probably write –\u00a0“progress”, \u00a0some things have remained rather consistent – people have a desire and maybe even\u00a0a need to whine, quip, and cry about the minutia of everyday life.\u00a0 People also, at times, like to hear others’ banter about what annoys them.\u00a0\u00a0Also similarly, people tend to have an attention span of a goldfish for this\u00a0kind of stuff.\u00a0 So “A\u00a0Few Minutes\u00a0With Andy Rooney” was really more than enough time to get your weekly fill of entertaining complaints about\u00a0our\u00a0World.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I remember watching his segment one time\u00a0when I was about 12 years old – that’s right, circa 1990.\u00a0 He did a thing on Hallmark cards and all the nonsense that\u00a0is written in birthday, mother’s day, and father’s day cards.\u00a0 He read a few of the cards he had strewn about his desk and then remarked, “If my kids gave me a card like this, I’d send them to bed without any supper!”.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

I don’t know why that stuck with me, but every time I go shopping for a card in CVS I think about Andy’s bit.\u00a0 Some of those cards really are stupid.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

So why is Andy the world’s first blogger and not any other editorial writer of that time or centuries prior?\u00a0 It’s because of the short, quick delivery and borderline nonsense of his content.\u00a0 For lack of a better description, Andy spent a few minutes each week bullshitting about our World.\u00a0 It was a stream of consciousness that sometimes made sense and sometimes did not.\u00a0 Facts weren’t always checked, opinions didn’t always remain consistent, and there wasn’t always a clear position on what the hell he was really trying to say.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n

These are the reasons people hate blogs, bloggers, and the world of amateur written commentary.\u00a0 But while Andy Rooney was far from amateur, he was certainly a blogger.\u00a0 <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would have loved to explain to Andy Rooney in 1978, when he started doing his bit for 60 Minutes, the whole blog phenomenon.\u00a0 I’d have to start with explaining the internet, email, laptops, and worst of all, the extinction of the typewriter.\u00a0\u00a0There would be no better sight than to see those eyebrows […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":587,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560\/revisions\/587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/constructonomics.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}