Why we blog...?

I wish I knew the answer so I could drop that question mark - "Why we blog." sounds much more impressive. But seriously, what has led to this culture of blogging? I have started this thing basically on a whim, and I doubt I will really keep up with it at all, but I have to admit it's kind of fun. The funny thing is, no one even knows I have it so no one is going to read any of this! And yet, I'm still writing as if I have an audience, and stranger still - like I said, I'm enjoying it.

It's actually not all that strange; after all, we've been writing in diaries and journals for a very long time. However, there is a slight difference here. Diaries and journals tend to be private in nature, not for others to read. My blog may resemble this, but thats just because no one knows/cares to read it. The purpose of a blog is for it to be read - who would publish their diary on the internet!? But oddly enough, it seems like that is what people are doing!

I think that maybe it is a reflection of our times. People feel more isolated than we used to as traditional forms of socialization have fallen by the wayside. Humans are social creatures of course, but we are much busier and detached than we used to be. There is a book called Bowling Alone by Robert Putnam* which makes the claim that America is becoming an isolated society (he uses the metaphor that although membership in bowling leagues has decreased, the numbers of people bowling have increased - people are "bowling alone.") I know about this book because I took a class in college where the prof didn't agree with this book, because she said that it was simply a case of different social groups replacing more traditional ones (her research consists of the culture of the "bleacher seat" Cubs fans at Wrigley Field).

I think this is probably what is happening here. We are not connected in the same ways we were before for whatever reasons (lack of time, changing ideas of "fun," whatever). We are using the internet and blogs to feel connected to our species (and back to the concept of diaries - you could say that blogs are more like memoirs in that they are meant to be read. What was once essentially reserved for the famous and "interesting" is now available to everyone, with thanks to the web.) You see the same thing in internet gaming, social networking sites, etc. Its not that we have developed different needs, its just that we are satisfying them in entirely new ways.


*Disclaimer: I have not actually read it!