Why Blog? There appears to be a number of reasons to Blog, including some very important ones
*Commercial use
*Community notification
*Corporate information
*Educational development
*Entertainment
*Personal enthusiasm
*Political observation
*Travel expansion
The list, as you can see could go on and on, the point is, there are a great deal of reasons to blog. There are also a great number of people blogging. So just how are these masses achieving such success and how? Many are using the free tools of the internet. People all over the world are using this inexpensive tool to present their point of view, provide information, give advice, to help to educate, and just have fun.
But I Wonder: My real questions about blogging seems to be “What are we missing, or are we missing anything?” In this digital age where we do so much communication online are we leaving the coffee shop and the kitchen table behind? Do we no longer have the need to see people face to face? And if we don’t see people face to face how much are we missing. If language is 80% visual and 20% oral what do we miss when we no longer have the opportunity to see our communicating partners while we exchange ideas? Just something I wonder about.
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Interesting percentages. Leads credence to that whole thing of how powewrful non-verbal language is and that it can tell us so much more than words or furthermore that a picture is worth a thousand words. For the introvert, they probably aren't
ReplyDeletemissing much. Even the social butterfly can feel envigorated via a blog due to the fact that he/she can reach out to more people by one interface than possible at a party or gathering. As someone who has never blogged until I became a part of this class blog experience I have evolved from resistent, to curious to cautiously drawn in by the ease and anonymity (as long as I leave my face and detailed info out of my sharing)of this phenonmenon.
As Lisa said, many introverts are comfortable with communicating without having to make eye contact. And I think technology is providing us with tools to help make up for the visual part of the conversation that we miss when we blog. Avatars have gained popularity and, of course, there are entire virtual communities like Second Life. We can chose to use avatars of join these communities if we want to add that visual aspect to our conversation. But even if the avatar is a good representation of a person, it's not the same as seeing another person and actually reading his or her facial expressions.
ReplyDeleteI notice that most people assume blogging means you won't be interacting with people face to face as much. What I have noticed though is that I actually interact as much or more now than I did before. I certainly have a new, bigger group of people that I interact with over the internet as well as in person. I posted about it this week because I realized how busy my "real" social life is and a lot of it is because of my online relationships with people.
ReplyDeleteMy woodworking and playing piano is cut short by communicating viz blogs and emails and Facebook. [I did get a hand written letter in the mail today from an old college friend.] One of the challenges for men when computers became the norm at work and at home, was learning to type with the left hand equally as the right hand. Males have typically been more dominant on one side of the brain whereas females are a bit more equal-sided (it that a word)? Blog and other web socializing requires a different physical skills, typing, and a different academic skill, spelling, than talking. Of course, this evolved into a new testing language.
ReplyDeleteThe point remains: the processes on the computer and Internet should not be considered as a simple replacement for some tradition process. The Internet and all its features offer new and different processes which may replace traditional processes but certainly don't duplicate them. I agree, seeing the body language and facial expressions, is very different than any image uploading on the Internet. Images on the Internet, with our present technology, does not replicate seeing the person. And it certainly misses the mark when it comes to a good friendly hug.
So are you a Second Life fan or avatar? I'm Denvy Zhangsun.
Back to the piano or cooking some real food.
Avatar is a perfect example of connection through technology. I realize it isn't real but it speaks loud.
ReplyDelete