Mystery, or something

[cdybedahl]

On my way to work I listen to podcasts. Today, it was BBC World Service's Digital Planet and the Swedish P1's Vetandets Värld ("Knowledge's World", literally translated). The first happened to be about blogging and the second about podcasting. Both of them at some point talked about why people blog or make podcasts, treating it as some kind of unknown mystery. Am I weird in thinking it totally freaking obvious that when given an opportunity to communicate, people will do so?

Comments

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Depends on what you mean by "communicate" :-) ... if you mean people want to talk and at least hope someone else cares enough to read (or possibly don't care about readers) then absolutely!

:-)

[vicki-sine.livejournal.com]

Apparently it is a mystery even to people who do it.

[mistraltoes.livejournal.com]

I confess it seems extremely strange to me to want to blog to strangers (unless it's a topical blog). I'm on LJ to communicate with specific people; if I get a comment from or friended by someone I don't already know, it weirds me out a bit.

[gnapp.livejournal.com]

While I, on the other hand, have made several friends that way. (Including cdybedahl even if it wasn't through a proper blog we met.) Some of them, I've met in real too, some I might meet, and some I won't ever meet except as text on a web page - but I still consider them friends. And I still know them, sometimes better than I know some "real" friends, because of this regular small talk that is blogging. (Small talk of this kind is not always interesting for strangers - what do you care that I didn't go riding cross country today? - but it's a way of keeping in touch, and keeping the new friends you make from your more interesting posts. :-)

I see LJ as a huge party. People stand in groups talking, and you walk around listening. Sometimes, you stop and talk to some friends - but they might have other friends there too. Soon, you find some of those friends interesting, and later, you might stop by one of them too, and join that conversation. Or that person over in <insert random hobby or interest group> - [s]he might also be interesting enough to start talking to, even if there's no mutual acquaintance to introduce you. And the great thing with this whole internet thingy is that we can do this. We can find people on the other side of the earth and make friends. And I think it's fantastic.

[vicki-sine.livejournal.com]

I always find it interesting that this even seems to be a mystery to those who do this professionally.

[notthebuddha.livejournal.com]

Not all communication opportunities are equal, of course, but a podcast that says there's no visible compelling reason to make podcasts sounds clumsily self-referential.