Παρασκευή 6 Νοεμβρίου 2009

On Blogging or the Virtual Nutshell

It’s been a long time since I started wondering about blogging; why it has taken the virtual world by storm and its effect on our self; what kind of communication it has brought about and its effect on the spread and exchange of ideas. This might have been the reason why I stopped writing on my blog. I felt the need to reflect on the nature of blogging.

Well, firstly, it goes without saying the blogging filled a communication gap. We found ourselves presented with the opportunity to extend our minds to a virtual world and exchange ideas with like-minded people –at least this applies to the majority of us. Something that started to bother me was that rather than communication it was self-gratification we were after. I have experienced this first-hand when I made comments –some well-intentioned ones I think, which could give food for thought- which were misunderstood, condescended upon or were met with complete unwillingness to delve deeper into what I was trying to articulate. Well, it never fails to amaze me that people forget that the construction of identity comes from our relations with the Other and the way we relate –especially with the ones we disagree with- affects our identity.

It seems to me that we have started to live in the maze of the Internet, each of us stuck in front of their terminal trying to desperately to fill the communication gap that exists in our lives. Someone might say that it is communication nonetheless, but, besides the above-mentioned doubts- to what extent does it compensate for communication in the flesh? What do we lose when the others become personas on a computer screen? It is certainly more convenient to address an avatar than dealing with the complications of an interaction in the real world. But could this not have a negative impact on our relationships with the people around us especially when for many blogging has become an addiction that takes up a significant part of their timetable on a daily basis and it bears all the characteristics of an obsession?

In short, don’t we become curled up in a virtual nutshell so that we become kings of our own infinite space?

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