I used to think blogs were for the faint of heart--those people who were too pusillanimous to write real books or have real conversations with real people.
I have changed my mind.
I no longer think that blog authors are lonely and narcissistic (although some are); I have decided that blogs are popular (and necessary) because blog writing and blog reading have taken the stealth out our collective search for authenticity and given us the courage to act upon our primordial desire to know people more deeply.
Let's face it: We want to emotionally connect with other people. Blogging is a way for us to share ourselves and build community; most people want to do this safely, with as little chagrin as possible. Blogging (I will henceforth use the term blogging to mean both reading and writing blogs) is a way for us to unashamedly present ourselves to everyone and no one without fear of being punished, ridiculed or rejected.
Gone are the days when we locked our Selves in the pages of diaries (termed "journals" when we became too cool to have diaries) so our snooping mothers, snooping accomplice fathers, voyeuristic sisters, and blackmailing older brothers could not see what we had written. Through blogging, we have, in a sense, reclaimed ourselves and abandoned the spirit of secrecy that is still alive in our elders, many of whom think blogging is farcical and that bloggers should never be taken seriously.
Blogging exists because we have always secretly wished that someone would care enough to discover us--the REAL US--the one who is smart, charming, cool and, most of all, lovable. We blog because we no longer have to exist in dark closets, under mattresses, in shoe boxes or wherever else we chose to hide our true stories.
Bloggers have used the Internet to lead us to a simple truth: We want to hear, and we want to be heard.
