What's Old Is New Again

I think it is very cool that so many people, including myself, are now writing blogs. I feel it is a circular sociological phenomenon that has sprung naturally from email. Being the egocentric creatures we tend to be, telling our friends short snippets of our day just didn't satisfy any longer. We needed to express ourselves, connect our business and academic selves to our home lives, and even connect friends and family to the rest of the world.

Why a circular phenomenon? Because in previous eras writing was the preferred manner of communication between persons and was so important in one's life that letters were read and re-read and then sometimes wrapped with ribbon and saved for years. Postcards told of peoples' travels around the world and of family holidays and were kept as mementos in scrapbooks. Today postcards can fetch a pretty penny at auction if rare enough.

News came exclusively through the written word as well. Before telephones, deaths, births, marriages and business were conducted in written form. Telegrams, although crypticly written messages, got the job done well enough.

So once again, albeit in a slightly different venue, a bunch of folks are logging on and instead of quickly blurting out the first thing that comes into their head over the telephone, they are sitting and composing thoughtful and sometimes thoughtless blog entries. Even the latter are thought-provoking and that, after all is the point as far as I'm concerned. I love the written word and am thrilled at it's come back.