11. Conclusion

Blogs are then much more temporary than books, very much of an individualized performance.  Like anything on the internet, the way people see and read blogs are their own preference.  They are a strange medium: blogs share the transience of live performance with the permanency of the internet.  Every entry made in a blog is saved in an archive, making everything you write online in your blog both immediate to the moment you write and post it, but still available to anyone who comes across it later (unless you make a conscious decision to delete that post).  The great thing for the reader about blog archives is that when you come across a new blog you can begin to know that person straight away, without having to wait for them to post more entries.  You can go back and start from any point in their blogging history, zip randomly about through their entries, or start at the beginning and watch the evolution of their blogging abilities.  It is beguiling, and you can very shortly feel close to someone who is not aware that you even exist, other than as a statistic, a hit on his or her stat counter, until you leave them a comment.

Unlike a book, a blog invites commentary—questions from the audience; discussions and disagreements with the author; interaction with other commenters, all in public.  Many blog authors allow comments on their posts, where anyone can say anything they like.  The comment section serves as a mini-webboard on every blog entry.  Commenters can become just as well known on certain blogs as the author, and by linking their comment to their own blog, they give the other readers an opportunity to view their entries and create dialogue over there as well.  Authors in blog communities, consisting of two to many blogs linked together, tend to read each other’s posts and react to them in an entry on their own blog.  They are free to write their musings without interrupting their flow of thought, by simply mentioning that they read this idea on someone else’s blog, and linking to the entry they are writing about.  This allows them to make only a simple explanation of where they got the idea, and allows the reader to compare both entries side-by-side on their computer screen.  This means that the reader is able to read each blogger’s entries without relying on someone else’s interpretation of the ideas in the blog posts.

Blogs are useful in this way because they serve as first-person reporting in a world where we are not always sure if large-media news is free to tell us everything they know.  A blog written in another part of the world gives us the kind of perspective that most journalists only dream of being allowed to report.  Blogs do not have to be ‘politically correct’, nice, or even particularly true, and their authors are able to be curmudgeons without the Disney-fied heart of gold.  That makes them all the more amusing and real.

In learning how to be digital people, how to interact in a new kind of community, and how to stay safe in unsure virtual and physical worlds, have we really gained more than we have lost?  Social commenters writing about online communities seem to think that the easy, safe interaction of small-town society is lost to the physical world and can be found only in the digital communities available to most people.  The truth is that both RL and digital life can be thrilling, companionable and dangerous.  While in the early days of online interaction it was impossible to hurt anyone online except emotionally, now the rash of ‘identity theft’ made easy by gathering financial information about others online can prove devastating to the victims’ lives, leaving them with damaged credit and a bad financial reputation.

Both the World Wide Web and RL are large places, teeming with strangers who may be content to listen and watch you, or who may decide that your opinions are anathema to them.  The quick evolution of technology have taken us in only a few decades from letter-writing as a primary means of communication, through a time where even long-distance telephone calls were rare, to instantaneous worldwide communication.  We are able to easily keep in touch with old friends, and speak free around the world: all we need is access.  Instantaneous communication both cheapens and deepens interaction with other people.  Casual friendships are easily made, but should a disagreement happen, internet friends are easily replaced.  However, being able to stay in touch with already-known friends or family helps to foster a relationship though life may get in the way and separate them.  These relationships, started at first in RL, do not need to be fanciful ones, using the other person merely to embody a fantasy-relationship; they already know each other, and there need not be a sad parting when one or both must go away.

Online arenas are a place where people are free to express themselves.  There are opportunities not always available to relax stringent societal boundaries of physical perception and gender roles, without having to avail oneself of the products available at such transgender websites like <http://www.transformation.co.uk/shopping/>, in order to transform oneself physically.  Since so much of life is already lived in the head, what difference does it make if your physicality does not match your personality?  Online, you can be whoever or whatever you want to be and construct fabulous castles in the sky.

Building a digital extension of yourself into the internet by constructing a blog can be highly cathartic without endangering your RL.  It is an exciting way to feel connected with the world, if your imagination is good enough.  In order to feel fully satisfied with a life lived online, one must be able to realize that there is another person out there, responding to you.  Though video conferencing, video emailing and video and audio blogging are starting to become more common, and technology may soon provide us with easily accessible virtual touch, they are still not complete substitutes for being in the physical presence of another: ‘the video does not transmit…the ‘prana,’ the life force, literally the breath of the other people.’  (Rheingold, 2000:177)

The internet gives us wonderful opportunities to recreate ourselves constantly, to live as several or many beings at the same time.  It is a way to connect with others when you are lonely.  You can learn about their lives, see pictures of their children, and tell them your own opinions as well.  It is a selfish place, where you can always find at least one person to listen to you and sympathize, no matter what your problems are—and if they want you to then listen to their problems, you can leave them behind and find a new victim, if you are so inclined.  Though you cannot control what others write, you can always find a place to express your own opinion.  That is one of the rare luxuries of life to those introverts who feel most comfortable in virtual society.