On the Perils of Blogging

On the front page of thew NYT Magazine this week (which I wish the Times would publish on paper and send out - I'd pay for it!) was a provocative article about blogging and pouring one's entire life out online. I'm not sure whether it's an excellent piece of writing or merely a very long exercise in mental masturbation, but it was catching enough that I read the entire thing. Maybe it's a generational thing, but I know for a fact my own blog pales in comparison to others in its dearth of really personal stuff. Partly it's because I'm quite introverted and even the anonymity of the Internet doesn't shield me from my discomfort at opening up my life to all and sundry. I'd like to think, too, that partly it's because I'm perspicacious enough to realize that too much detail - even for someone as mundane as me - isn't necessarily a good thing to be spreading around. One never knows, after all.

But the reality is the Internet has changed everything. The comments on the article (when I read them there were over 1100) alternated from abusing the author to praising her for her candor to decrying what the Internet has become. And until we get the Next Big Thing, blogging is Here to Stay. People younger than I am think nothing of spending a lot more time than I in front of the laptop, blogging away. It's a wonder they have time to actually live a life to blog about!

I know I sound old and dated. Oh well!

RFSJ

Did You Know?

As an Xer, I am one of the first of the cross-Internet generation. I actually remember a time before the Internet. As I look around the vicarage, I realize a lot of aspects of my life haven't changed. I don't have robots cleaning for me, althogh Roomba and his colleagues do exist, and I still cook over gas using real meat and vegetables and all that. Paper books still exist and are in no danger of going away. I still watch a big TV in the evening. I still have a toaster and sit on furniture from my grandmother's house and I have a car that runs on gasoline. In many ways my life hasn't changed from when I was growing up in Toledo.

And yet the Internet has changed the world, in ways we do not yet even have much of a clue about. Here's an excellent video called Did You Know that asks some very pointed questions. Unfortunately, there's one question it did not ask that I think continues to be relevant today. What question do you think needed to be asked and wasn't? I'll tell you my opinion after you've weighed in.

Check it out:




RFSJ