Raw Thoughts

Blog. weB LOG. Essentially, a diary on the web. That being said, popular bloggers like Andrew Sullivan generally focus more on current events than cute boys and drama and whatever else comes to mind when thinking about the stereotypical "diary". It is a new way of communicating in our new technology filled era. It is a type of writing that, as Sullivan says, "is what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud." 

Unlike formal print writing, where a journalist has time to collect information and organize it into a well thought out piece on a given issue, followers of blogs demand information regularly, in real time, in response to current events. This  forces the author to take a more a risk and write whatever comes to mind, despite knowing that a barrade of emails could be to follow about the inaccuracy of a point made in the sometimes rushed post. In Sullivan's words, its more of a broadcast than a publication. Its being willing to put your work out there, and let it be criticized by emails and comments until the truth about the issue is revealed. 

Despite the possibility of immediate scrutiny associated with a post on the internet, blogging allows for more of a personal connection between the author and reader.

          "There is simply no way to write about [events] in real time without revealing a huge amount about yourself. And the       intimate bond this creates with readers is unlike the bond that the The Times, say, develops with its readers through the same events. Alone in front of a computer, at any moment, are two people: a blogger and a reader. The proximity is palpable, the moment human—whatever authority a blogger has is derived not from the institution he works for but from the humanness he conveys"

If nothing else, the fact that the reader knows the author not as "Mr. Sullivan", but rather "Andrew" lends just that more of a personal feel to the writing. 

He compares blogging to Jazz and writing to composed formal music. Jazz, as all musicians would likely agree, has not and will not ever replace composed music, but it offers a sense of improvised and intimate music, just as blogging has done with writing.