On 'blogs

I do a lot of my thinking while I'm in the shower, and during my most recent one (see my previous post), the topic-of-the-moment was 'blogs' -- why do we keep them? What's their purpose? Why am I keeping one? (Not very surprising, considering that I had created my first blog just a few hours ago.) One (obvious) line of thought is that this is our (where 'we' = children of the Digital/Internet Age) personal pulpit, an opportunity to tell the entire world what we think, and (hopefully) make our presence felt. (Clearly, a 21st-century evolution of the personal webpages on geocities / tripod / angelfire / university servers that spread like wildfire back when the 'Web was young.) This has shades of commonality with the publish-or-perish philosophy in the research/academic world -- which I was reminded of while reading a fellow grad-student's blog post earlier today. If you do not publish, you effectively do not exist. Blogito, ergo sum.

But, is anyone really listening? In the short while since starting this blog, I've been tempted to write down every inane little thought that I've had -- like this one, for example. Does that not reek of hubris, to believe that the world cares about things like that? I'm not saying that they're not significant, but that they're only significant to people to whom I'm already close, and I would typically only mention them to those people in a personal conversation. A web-log isn't the place for such things, is it?

And, speaking of personal conversations, I'm a strong believer in the importance of face-to-face communication, with all its subtle nuances of body language and the training it gives you in proper social intercourse/etiquette. Telephone conversations and the written word (letters, e-mail, Instant Messaging, Bulletin-Board Systems / Internet forums) are useful and necessary, but they're already a step away. The more we use -- and rely on -- the Internet and related technology to interact with the rest of the world (from blogs and social-networking websites to the innocuousness of news and e-commerce/web-merchant websites), the more we seem to be losing that personal touch, and actually distancing ourselves from the rest of the world, retreating into shells which only we inhabit and where, to a large extent, only our feelings matter. It's easier to disregard another person when they're not physically standing right in front of you. (An IM conversation with ChrissyNB earlier today reminded me of this paradox of the Internet Age.) But, coming back to blogs and personal conversations about `little' things: When I voice such thoughts out aloud, I expect a response. I want a response -- that's why I mentioned that thing to that person (or persons). And a personal conversation, whether face-to-face, or via a telephone or IM, (usually) gives me that gratification. A web-log would not - there's no guarantee of a response, and most definitely not an immediate one. So I can see myself quickly tiring of this exercise if I let that -- the sharing of my thoughts with the world -- be the its principal/sole raison d'etre. (I already have/use e-mail as a medium for pushing that sort of information to people whom I know would be interested in it, so I don't need a blog for that purpose. If this blog evolves to subsume that functionality, and performs it in a more efficient manner, then that's just dandy, of course.)

Which brings me back, full-circle, to the comments of my very first post: Is the primary purpose of a blog to be -- for me, at least -- more like a personal diary? A collection of writings with myself as the primary intended audience? Yet, this is a public space, with the secondary (?) purpose of allowing others to weigh in on my thoughts as well... if they care to! A blog is not at all an incarnation (however diluted) of the traditional social interaction, yet neither is it the place to jot down notes to myself that are too personal to share with others. It's a strange sort of hybrid of the two, retaining some of their functionalities while also, unfortunately, losing their others. The real question -- to me -- is: Is it worth it? Is having one (or two) tilt-rotor(s) better than having one aeroplane and one helicopter? ;)