Dear web log

 Long gone are the days when diaries came in pretty hardbound booklets of scented paper. Diaries and journals used to be tucked away from snooping eyes in closet crevices and secrets locked away from the whole world. But we live in the information age now, wherein privacy seems to have become as passé as hardbound diaries. “Dear Diary” has become “Dear Web Log or blog”, or any other personal term one may use to call his or her personal web space where the whole world can take a peek at your soul.

 What our times apart from the Dear Diary scribes of earlier generations is that we post our entries in the very public domain of the World Wide Web. We are, in the parlance of our times, bloggers.

 A “blog” (a contraction of web log) is any website where entries are usually categorized in reverse chronological order (latest entries are seen first) and the rest are in arhcives. "Blog" is also used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

What began in 1997 as a fad among the savviest of the tech savvy – not everyone is a techie, after all - has mushroomed into a vast network of fanatic bloggers. The fervor reached new heights in 1999 with the creation of blogger.com, a site that, along with a slew of others today, enables anyone to sign up and begin blogging in minutes.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries, where people vent their sentiments. A typical blog blends text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability for readers to leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Blogger.com is a well-loved, versatile site while popular social networking sites like Friendster.com or Multiply.com also have blog spaces for users.

 With the ready availability of blogs, why do people now feel compelled to share their thoughts with the world? Why do we keep ourselves busy updating our social networking profiles (Friendster addicts upload pictures on a daily basis), and hoping the world would take heed of what we have to say? It seems we have become more outspoken, more emboldened since we now have outlets through which to vent our thoughts.

 American writer Herman Melville once said, "We cannot live for ourselves alone. Our lives are connected by a thousand invisible threads, and along these sympathetic fibers, our actions run as causes and return to us as results." That could best describe our web of blogs and social networking profiles.

I started blogging some years ago largely because… well, it was all the rage back then and it still is. A small part of me, however, was selfishly hoping for admiration and affirmation for good pieces I might churn out; a shallow attitude I've long abandoned. Eventually, I discovered the real joy of blogging found through "invisible threads" and "sympathetic fibers" - those human connections made along the way. Blogging could be a great way to turn strangers into friends.

 For the practical, blogging is a great way to do a little business advertising (oftentimes for free), practice one’s hand at writing (the comments will both shock and please you), establish a written record of yourself (think of it like as a personal history book), share knowledge and bolster one’s people skills.

 Maybe yet, blogging is a peek into what else the future may bring. From diaries to blog entries, what’s next? Let me leave you with a quote from author Shel Israel, “Blogging is indeed just a tool, a mere dot… on a longer continuum. But it is a revolutionary tool, and those who just keep hacking along in the undergrowth will remain blind to the big picture until it is too late."

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