Beyond Blogging, etc.
Would blogging set off something unexpected that becomes the next killer application for the web? I have a feeling that we're at the very beginning of something revolutionary in communications. Historically, any advances in either transportation or communication, sets off a real and tremendous change in people' lives in general. These days we are riding the communication wave. Transportation, on the other hand, has stagnated for a very long time. Nothing really new has evolved since the introduction of passenger flight a half a century ago. PRT (Personal Rapid Transit) remains, to the dismay of its devote and fanatic believers, a pipe dream. Rail has been going downhill with some exceptions, yet its heir, the car, hasn't evolved much. And as a transportation solution, its taking us to dead end.
But back to blogging; people are raving about it for the wrong reasons. There are those who think that it could actually bring them fame or fortune. I don't like disappointint them, but they remind me of the average teenage basketball player aspiring to be the next Mike Jordan. It's not impossible, but it's a one-in-a-million chance. Same goes for aspiring actors and aspiring writers. Just take a look at these two links to get a more 'realistic' picture. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/384be1be-9eb1-11da-ba48-0000779e2340.html and http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/000809.html#000809
Yet who said that every blogger has to strike it rich in order for us to call the blogging phenomenon a success? Maybe we are asking the wrong question. I still believe that blogging is a revolution. But it's an evolving revolution. How it will affect us in the end is anyone's guess.
But back to blogging; people are raving about it for the wrong reasons. There are those who think that it could actually bring them fame or fortune. I don't like disappointint them, but they remind me of the average teenage basketball player aspiring to be the next Mike Jordan. It's not impossible, but it's a one-in-a-million chance. Same goes for aspiring actors and aspiring writers. Just take a look at these two links to get a more 'realistic' picture. http://news.ft.com/cms/s/384be1be-9eb1-11da-ba48-0000779e2340.html and http://www.2blowhards.com/archives/000809.html#000809
Yet who said that every blogger has to strike it rich in order for us to call the blogging phenomenon a success? Maybe we are asking the wrong question. I still believe that blogging is a revolution. But it's an evolving revolution. How it will affect us in the end is anyone's guess.
posted by Joe Ken Gus Sighed at 1:33 AM
2 Comments:
hi there,
thanx for stopping by my blog & dropping a line about pen-pals :)
it's interesting that you are expecting blogging to set off the next major fundamental shift in how we live our lives...
I think that, if nothing else, blogging has provided the average Joe & Jane the freedom to express their opinions to the whole world.
There are of course positive and negative consequences to this... but the joy of expressing yourself, to be able to do so, is something perhaps people from "free-er" couuntries like the U.S. may not appreciate as much as, oh, people from China (still being controlled, tho...), Malaysia, etc...
The new revolution. It's getting to the point that any Joe, Monica, Linda or Lisa can speak their mind in a somewhat public forum. It seems everyone feels the need to express themselves, to bare their souls to the virtual strangers of the world, when those same people won't open the door to the guy in the next apartment. We want to connect, but then not really. We want relationships without the relations part of it, or is that relations without the relationships? Are we that scared of the other guy, that potential homicidal psychopath, or are we scared of ourselves... What we become when we are placed face to face with a real person.
Could Alexander Graham Bell have had any clue what his invention would develop into when he hooked those wires together? I doubt it. Shall we take a trip back in time to rediscover what his hopes and dreams were? The water's warm, the computer screen blue.
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