Living on the web

Blogs have gained momentum. There are a million new ones out there being created each day and suddenly everyone seems to be blogging. It’s catching fire! In the last 10 days, I have heard blogs being mentioned at least on 4 different occasions on the morning news, the last one talking about a Blooker

So is blogging the next big trend on the world wide web that would stand the test of time and one day stop seeming like a novel activity much like chatting or emailing are today? Or is it a passing fad that eventually people will grow out of? Will blogs meet the same fate as home pages did?

Well, honestly I am no expert on blogging and have started blogging actively only in the recent past - so here I only hope to share my views and by no means speak with any sense of authority on the topic.

My concept of what a blog is has changed dramatically in the last 4 years. When I first heard the word 'blog' about 4 years ago, (at the risk of exposing my ignorance and sounding completely stupid here) I though it was a ‘weird new animal’, of course in my defense I had only heard the word and had no reference to it. Later somebody sat me and explained that it actually stood for web-log and from then until recently I though of it like an online journal – like some one’s journal / diary – only this one was available for viewing. Off late as I have started ‘visiting’ blogs and I like the language that has been created around blogs – I am beginning to feel – it is much more than just a journal.

We ‘visit’ blogs, we don’t just read them.

We leave notes and messages for people on their blogs – ‘hey I haven’t seen you in a while or i need to talk to you urgently, buzz me asap’

We tell people who visit us ‘thanks for stopping by’

If we do not intend to blog, we make our absence know – ‘I won’t be blogging for the next few days. Hope to see you soon’ since you would not want people turn up to your house and find the door locked (did I just say house – I meant site)

Then there are veterans who retire from blogging – much like when we are fed up of social interactions – we become reclusive. And some blogs do see the end of their life.

We even ‘celebrate blog birthdays’ and leave belated wishes when we miss these milestones

Are blogs here to stay? I guess we’ll all know in time but if I were to bet my money on that – I would say they’d stay. Since they have started to fulfill a fundamental human need – the need to connect!

I see life around them and life in them. (And I guess my initial idea of a blog as being something living was not too daft after all). There is one blog title that sums it all for me. It goes ‘I had a life before... now I only have a blog. It would be interesting to observe then, how long blogs live. Measuring blongevity…any takers?
web, blog, social blogging

Category: Blogs_