Why Dogs Would Never Blog

Sarah Boxer writes in today’s NY Times Sunday Arts section about dogs, cats and blogs.

“This is her story. Last month a woman let her dog relieve itself on the subway in Seoul. She was caught, by a cellphone camera, doing nothing about it. Within days, her picture, her identity, her family’s identity and her past were revealed to the world on the Web. She quit her university in shame. The Washington Post and The Columbia Journalism Review weighed in. On Wikipedia there’s already a “dog poop girl” entry logged, and a movement to delete it.

Interesting, yes, but not funny. Maybe the difference is that dogs are public, everyone’s business. They go on subways and they go in parks. They are always caught in flagrante defecato. Cats stay home. They are private, nobody’s business. To watch them in their homes is a privilege. They are perfect for the Web, the medium of voyeurs.

Remind you of anything? Those cats are like so many bloggers sitting at home staring into their computer screens and watching other bloggers blog other bloggers. Cats, who live indoors and love to prowl, are the soul of the blogosphere. Dogs would never blog.”