Today I’d just like to flag up this very interesting Steve Shives video. I’ve been watching Shives’ vlogs for a while now, and he posts about all kinds of things, particularly Star Trek and American politics. In this video, though, he responds to the criticism he’s obviously received that he doesn’t stick to one subject: that is, when people go to his Youtube channel, expecting to watch something about, say, Deep Space Nine, they find something about the recent antics of Donald Trump. Shives also doesn’t always stick to the same subject within his videos, and a few people have obviously been irritated by that.

I find that interesting, or at least mentioning here. I obviously write blog entries about all sorts of things, from Bond films to bus rides – whatever comes to my attention on a given day, frankly. I think it’s important that, as a disabled guy, I can be concerned about, and my attention can be drawn to, a vast range of subjects, just like anyone else’s can. The same will naturally apply to anyone who vlogs on Youtube.

Yet Shives’ video nonetheless raises some fairly interesting questions about modern online culture. Is there now a growing tendency for compartmentalisation? Do internet users now want to only find certain things in certain places, and object to anything which strays from that? Should people concerned about their weight only produce content about being fat, or musicians just about making music, just so we all know where to go to see or read certain things? and what might the rise of such attitudes tell us about the need for a growing sense of order in contemporary culture, both online and off? Such a stick-to-the-subject approach would certainly lend more structure and rigidity to the web, but I fear it would tie internet users down too much, and take a lot of the variety and diversity out of online discourse. If I were to only write blog entries about being disabled, only talking about my powerchair or the treatment I got in the local shop, I daresay a lot of readers would get very bored very quickly. I’ll continue to blog about whatever I want, then, and assure vloggers like Shives they can do the same.