Attitude *snap, snap*

Bad enough to put up with it at work; your miserable, good-for-nothing boss has the affrontery to demand you respect them for no other reason than they've been in your job market a few years longer than you and your snivelling co-workers plot against you and swipe your brilliant ideas and your lunch. Because you're well-grounded and not a self-loathing nutcase, you are ostracized and generally picked-on, from the gum-chomping receptionist to the HR bots, the IT malcontents to the bloated aging yuppies who make up "Leadership".

So you leave for the day--a fleeting 5:00 liberation--only to find more hassle walking down the street and getting on the subway, locating your black Jetta amongst the hundreds of its cousins in the parking garage, sitting in traffic for eons, getting caught in the rain without your umbrella, Death Marching in 90 degree/90% humidity city streets,...you get the idea.

Second fleeting liberation, when you walk through the door of your place. Changing out of your monkey business suit, you listen to your voicemail messages and read your mail. One or the other is bound to ratchet your stress right back up. So you grab a cold one and watch TV, try to relax. If you have a significant other, this last part is a fantasy. Instead, you will listen attentively and supportively as your loved one gripes about their crappy job and all the jerks they encountered in their day.

Finally, you settle down in front of your computer to do a little surfing, a little sneaky peeping, instant messaging, and a little blogging. Your own blog features things you think are funny and/or interesting, rants, raves, jokes, and pictures you thieved off google.com images. Friends, relations, and the clan of Anonymous post comments on your various entries, and you do the same for them. All in good fun and friendship, no?

You check out weblogs from people you don't know, but have heard of or read about. Political blogs like Wonkette and the Drudge Report, for instance, or entertainment and special interest blogs. Then there are people who are trying to find a shortcut to fame through their blog. You'll recognize them by the palpable pretentiousness of their language and the sneering contempt for the unworthy readers of their stupid blog. More and more, you equate "attitude" with pettiness, insecurity, complete obnoxiousness--everything opposite of "cool", and you yearn for the days when blogs were depositories for people's bad poetry and sad life stories. What will become of blogging, do you suppose? Will it run its course and end up a ha-ha on a VH1 remember when show? Will it morph into something else entirely? Is it a vast right-wing conspiracy and we are unwittingly sealing our fates with each posting of a Am-I-Hot-or-Not photo?

Wait--was it viruses that made the internet into just another hassle, or was it spammers, online forum trolls, or people who write things that thoroughly bum you out?