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.

[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.