Bits of Whitdom

The Good, The Bad and The Unseen

Well, it is certainly no secret that I am the new kid on the blog.

It's somewhat similar to the first day on the job when you don't know anything...don't know where the copier paper is...don't know the code to get back into the door after going to the bathroom down the hall...don't know how to access voicemail. It's that creepy feeling that somehow you have forgotten everything that may have even remotely made you qualified for this job.

Perhaps this is the blog dedicated to the observation of the blog.

The Good -- Blogging ties together 21st century technology with our age-old desire to be connected.

I've already made a friend in the blog-o-sphere. You'll note that she's the only one who has posted on here. (I don't count the James Bond quotes as real posts. Sorry 007.) But the point is, that even on the internet...when we are as arm's length as one can be from one another, that we still value the need to connect with someone else. My thoughts haven't changed from when I put them down on paper, but they are somehow validated because someone looked at them. I wouldn't know this woman if I saw her on the street, but I already feel a kinship with her because of her kind words toward me and because I have taken the time to look at her blog and connect with her. I don't think it's an extreme leap to say that most people who blog have some desire at some level to connect with others. Otherwise, there wouldn't be the opportunity to interact and to have discourse...nor would it be encouraged through posting and feedback. In the final analysis, connecting with the reader is what makes one blog more prominent than another.

The Bad -- There is no stop gap for bloggers who would use the power and responsibility of their platform to incite fear or hatred or to trash and flame other people.

What some see as the beauty of the blog to get the truth out in the open can conversely be its biggest downfall in that there are those who would willfully and maliciously use the access of the internet to throw around accusations and insinuations that hurt others and destroy lives and causes. Lively discourse and debate are good and healthy. Blaming and deceipt and manipulation...not good and certainly not healthy. So, in sorting through the blogs, it is important to be educated yourself...to track down and separate out fact and fiction. And to also be very conscious of your own power either as a blogger or a post-er to be fair and to be accurate.

The Unseen -- With almost 9 millions blogs out there, surely there are some that will never gather an audience even though they may be better written and more beautifully done than some of the most frequented.

Think of the amazingly beautiful flower that grows in the wild that will never be seen by a human. It is no less lovely because one person didn't deem it so. (I know, I know -- the age old question about if a tree falls in the woods with no one to hear it, then does it make a sound?) I guess the point of the "Unseen" is that we always need to be aware that we do not fully know what all is 'out there' -- talents, gifts, beauty, opportunities, consequences, you name it -- we can't entirely know all that abounds around us. It's a simple reminder to keep us humble and to keep us looking and learning and guessing and curious. When we think we know it all, we just know all we'll ever know.

So, those are my thoughts and observations on blogging for today. Perhaps there will be more later...but alas, I'm having writer's blog.

posted by Whitney @ 4:37 AM