Does This Make Me An Addict?

I know, I know - a third post in one day?!

I guess it's one of those days, which is probably how over half the blogs that exist have come into being. It's strange. We are surrounded with numerous people throughout the day from fellow commuters to coworkers to friends and family. And yet we feel compelled to create a blog to express what we really think. And it's not so much 'hiding' behind the mysterious cloak of the internet - most social programs actually encourage us to say who we are, and most of us take it on good faith that we'll be safe saying who we are when venting thought streams online.

Why is that? It's not necessarily because we feel that there are not enough opportunities to talk to people, is it? No, I think it has to do with communication practices among peers. (Listen to me, I sound like a professional! Don't make that assumption, by the way.) I think people used to be able to simply listen to the other person finish their thoughts without interruption, but now with the constantly updating environment that the digital world offers, actual interpersonal communication is mimicking digital communication.

Please don't interpret that statement as some kind of 'the internet is bad' mentality. I think it just goes to demonstrate the effectiveness of the digital methods that it inspires an entire lifestyle. No one can post a comment these days knowing that the last published comment they read before starting to compose their response will be the same comment that shows prior their completed response. And people get used to it. Unfortunately there are still juvenile delinquents typing 'First' when a brand spanking new news item or facebook status is posted.

Careers and individuals have, as a modern community, come to the point where the computer and its access to the internet have become the focus not just for entertainment but also for basic information needs (online newspapers), work functions (in my case, connecting to OCLC to check bibliographic records), and social interaction (why, blogs, of course!). And like anything else, you spend enough time focusing on it, it becomes the center of the focus. It vies for attention along with family members, religious beliefs, friendships, hobbies, you name it - it's jostling to be the first place we look at during any given moment.

Sure, this view is approaching the issue of changing communication practices pretty deeply - almost more energy than it's worth devoting to it, really. Oh, the point I'm trying to make!

Yes, the point I'm trying to make is that one of the major factors for the blog existing is that the internet (as if it's something sentient...) has made us all a wee bit twitchy, like squirrels on crack, when we converse with each other. It seems to have noticed its error and offers us the blog - an outlet that allows individuals to express fully developed thoughts (even if very few of us actually DO put forth fully formed thoughts). The only difference is that now instead of engaging the audience face-to-face or via phone, you get to pick a larger pool of people to make up your potential audience. And to make up for that lack of intstant guaging of the audience, web 2.0 was born to allow the audience to talk, or shout, back. Which usually works well with short posts, so that thoughts don't get too carried away.

That's obviously not this one.