Bloggerisms

Most of my day has been spent writing. It has been a rainy day here, the first since our arrival in Christchurch. It was actually quite beautiful. It was one of those rains that creates a meditative splish-splash as it gracefully falls to the concrete. One of those rains that you want to be walking or running in, or if not, it is one of those rains that makes your indoor activities seem that much more cozy. As I said, I spent most of my day writing—today actually marking the first day of this semester where I did something you could actually categorize as substantial school work. Yes, midterm is next week and I have three papers and a test. Today I whipped out a paper on the origins of algebra, a very interesting subject that I would be more than happy to ponder with any of you mathematicians out there but will refrain discussing on my blog as to not send the rest of you to a teary want to want-to-hit-your-head-on-a-wallish state.

Most of you who read this blog also probably read the blog of one Bryce Perica and are therefore probably quite aware that he, in the last couple of weeks, has posted three blogs on blogging itself. If you haven’t seen these posts go check them out (Bryce’s blog is hyper-linked on the right hand column). I discussed some of his ideas on blogging with him and decided that it might be worthwhile to provide a different viewpoint on blogging.

Bryce’s main beefs seemed to be with poor writing, ill-thought out posts, and the issue of publication. Why I would agree that writing and lazy posts might be a problem (you might as well at least check your spelling by throwing it into a Word document) I do not consider myself a writer and therefore I am not going to point a finger at other peoples writing. About publication, I never really considered the idea of being ‘published’ when blogging and have always viewed it as more of a medium of communication instead of one for publication.

I started a blog a couple of months back mainly because I dreaded the idea of informal mass emails and because I really enjoyed both Bryce and Aaron’s blog. Thinking about it, I am not sure how a blog could really be much more formal than a mass email, but somehow it felt better. It has certainly allowed me to keep people updated, or at least give them an opportunity to update themselves, on what I am up to here in New Zealand. However, when Bryce started a conversation concerning the purpose of blogs are I was obliged to consider.

To me, this blog, in conjunction with the many other blogs listed in ‘blogs I can’t get enough of,’ has provided some sense of community. A sort of bloggermunity. This is at the same time awesome and scary. While I love being able to stay connected, read up on everyone’s thoughts, and be apart of this bloggermunity I sometimes worry that it creates community falsely. As technology allows for more ways of communication, they seem to be getting less and less formal. Why walk to their house when you can just call them? Why call them when you can just text them? Why text them if you could just read their blog? I started to talk to Chris about this and he began discussing the psychology of internet relationships (he’s a psych major), which led to the question: Is an internet community, or a bloggermunity, really community at all?

Well, yes and no. I could never equate reading everyone’s blog to actual community like can be experienced in an evening around a dinner table, or on a mission trip, or in years of walking through life together. However, I do see this as a way to make what is lost in distance less significant. Community is certainly not created on blogs, but I feel as though it can in some ways be sustained for a time. Sure there may be a danger of letting blogging feel like authentic community, which they are not, but there is also advantage to having a place where, in distance, ideas and experiences can be shared. And, of course, blogging and this little bloggermunity are certainly better than community at all.