Communication, vanity, and reality
Comments I’ve received about what I post here have gotten me thinking about why people create or read blogs. My best guess is that it’s because people are naturally curious and like to know about each other. The internet allows people to constantly be in touch, but it’s impractical for everyone to actually be yakking with each other all the time. Blogs allow a low intensity way for people to know what others are up to.
Those who blog because they believe others really want to know what they think are kidding themselves. People want surfing the internet to be fun. Few will read pages that are depressing, boring, full of controversial statements that upset them, or that can’t be digested in a minute or so. Also, you have to use some discretion because you never know who’s listening or what they’ll do with the information.
That might sound pretty restrictive, but it isn’t really — the rules that have governed society for millennia are virtually identical. No one likes to be around someone who’s always a party pooper, jabbers incessantly about things no one is interested in, intentionally provokes arguments, insists on turning every idea into a philosophical treatise, or introduces inappropriate topics. There’s no reason to expect that basic social rules depend on specific technologies.
Neither blogs nor any other new technology changes things as much as people imagine. To illustrate this point, the library world has been going nuts for the past few years over how “virtual reference” will transform services forever. Basically, the hullabaloo is about using instant messaging to answer questions.
It’s not a bad idea, but even most librarians seem unaware that virtual reference has been widely available for many years thanks to a fabulous peer to peer network technology. This technology is called the “telephone.” Gotta keep things in perspective…..