Private & Public

Why do people blog? Why do millions around the world spend hours keying in their views, dissents, feelings, protests, cries, observations, beliefs to an unknown audience? Why not share your thoughts with your girlfriend, best friend, spouse or peers? What drives that desire to share your inner self with those you might never see? Is it because it’s convenient? I don’t think so.

The leitmotif of the past decade has been the internet. No, I’m not here to lecture anyone on how it has changed the world or how it has brought lonely hearts the world over a platform to open their – what else – lonely hearts. Or how the net democratised pornography. No, I’ve something else in my mind. The internet and the accompanying revolution in mobile communications has seen a surge in the number of must have gadgets. From cell phones to ipods to laptops. So, now it’s easier to communicate with those around you. You can send text from the confines of your CEO’s room on how archaic his ideas are. So, if you now have all the gadgets you never even dreamt of, to communicate with your girl friend and your best friends, why do you share yourself with an unknown audience?

Because people, the net has allowed you and I to display all our personality traits. Including the very fact that you and I may have more than one personality to begin with. A mysterious side that we can’t share with anyone around us. A rebellious side they may not take seriously. A lonely side that they can never understand. The net, with its freedom of anonymity, allows us to express that voice. A voice not many of us have. But a voice that some of us are struggling to stifle. So, instead of sending your girl an sms about how your day has been, or calling her up late at nite to share a quirky thought, you share it with those masked faces on the worldwide web.
A mobile phone is about being in touch. E-mail is about being together. An ipod is about being in vogue. And a blog is about being lonely. Good nite.