What
accounts for the popularity of blogging?
That's easy. Mankind is a social
animal. From the beginning of time he
has determined that the best method of survival comes in gathering together;
first that meant in hunting. Mammoths
are big. One spear won't cut wool. Then came gathering and cropping. Labour intensive, made lighter by many
hands. Next came argy-bargy for
territory. Armies only happen if you've
got numbers of bodies to put in them.
So it
went on until the heady days of wide-spread communication via the town criers
and wandering minstrels. Folk always
wanted to know everyone else's business.
It has always been used to measure oneself by. It has also always been subject to
interpretation and invention.
When the
common man learned to read and write, along came true mass communication. Once begun, there was no stopping that
monster. When the technological age came
along and semaphore was developed - well!
Next came ticker-tape, established postal systems and - goodness gracious
- the telephone. EEEK. Once that came out of the realms of 'only for
the rich and famous', Joe Blogg and his aunty could set the neighbourhood on
fire with a few salacious words and an eaves-dropping telephonist. ...yes you read that correctly. We used to
call the nameless representative of societal man "Joe Blogg". The writing was on the wall.
What one
wrote and how one wrote it became a matter of discussion in itself. Active participation became ever-more
available. Global communications with
absolute strangers began with the postcard exchanges and "pen-friends". I had one friend in Sri Lanka with whom I
maintained a connection for about 8 years (a record for that type of thing) -
she went to Uni and that quenched it.
That,
Dear Reader, was the start of blogging, right there. Cards and envelopes winging across the world,
bringing with them exotic smells, tales of lives lived differently and building
the Global Village.
It was
this aspect which persuaded me, finally, there is a place for blogging in the
social structures of our day. Nothing
beats Actual Facing. But for the
adventurous in spirit and the restless of finger, this is surely the way to
go. Yours Truly dipped her ethereal toe
into the cloud with a picture blog, thinking 'that will do for now'. Oh, the innocence of the early user!
Once
tasted, ever the slave.
I'm sure
it can be weaned off. Like beating the
mangoholism and the bhangra-fixes.
But one
has to want to 'get straight'. No. As addictions go, at least this here can
offer a podium from which to spread a little light and cheer... and it causes no physical harm.
Unless of
course you count going blind.
Here endeth reflections on blogging. For now.
What next to ponder d&m-fully? Oh
don't ask me that - I'm no closer to knowing what's going to fall out of this
brain than you are!!!
Thanks. Parcel sent Thursday.
ReplyDeleteOh, you're hooked, Yamani, you're definitely hooked. :-)
ReplyDeleteHari OM
ReplyDeleteThank you ladies. It's therapy I've decided... &`}