Born Under Punches

After becoming increasingly immersed in the blog community over the past couple of months, Iv finally got round to having a stab at contributing.

They say blogging is to words what napster was to music; the means and incentive to share news/theories/opinions/innane chatter freely and easily. Personally, I see its impact reaching even deeper. Sites such as this one not only afford the user the means to present their words/media ect. to a vast audience;they are a medium for people to reflect their real lives and personalities. And, for this reason, I think theyre bloody well fascinating. There are few things more compelling than a window into a strangers life; couple with the ability to interact with one another as easily as typing on a message board and the phenomenon status is well and truly confirmed.

From a readers POV I guess the attraction is obvious, but whats in it for the writer? What is it that has people flocking to sign up to these sites? I suppose the 'dear diary' factor comes into it. The thereputic effect of seeing the events of your day in black and white should not be underestimated. But there has to be something in the idea of a total stranger being able to read it aswell as you that appeals to us. Hmmmm....

Also, of all the online communities (message boards, chatrooms ect) I personally have found the blogging community to be (sweeping generalisation warning...) the most pleasant by a distance. The fact there is some actual reading and (heaven forbid) thinking involved in blogging, i think this deters at least some of the less determined web idiots from wreaking their (sexually motivated?) havoc on your decent bloggers.
It is a format which encourages community spirit; the effort is made to read/write/maintain blogs which I feel makes them much less throwaway than your average web community (which are thrown up with a carefree nonchalencence that seems to breed these hateful little flamers). Blogs,I would say by and large are less suseptable to general internet fuck-witery.

Phew..right, a bit about myself. Im 21, studying English language at Newcastle, and I play/record music, play/watch football, read and generally lark about in my copius amounts of free time. Oh, and apologies for my spelling, I study language you see.