The digital age has connected millions of people around the globe to the virtual life. This cyber-reality features many elements: an ever-expanding pool of information at one’s fingertips, improved access to the Internet, and trends that come and go like ships in the night.
Blogging is one trend that doesn’t appear likely to go away. It has firmly established itself as an alternative form of communication that shows no sign of slipping into obscurity regardless of the pace of future technology and ever-evolving, new forms of communication.
The reason blogging has become an integral part of online culture is because it satisfies a perpetual human need: the desire for self-expression. Even in our cave-dwelling days, we used fire-illuminated walls as a canvas.
This urge for self-expression moved from painted or chiseled messages in pyramids and temples to papyrus and paper-and-cloth books. The ubiquitous glowing electronic screen in billions of homes and palms has given writers a new way to express their thoughts on the great human adventure — and to far more readers.
Today blogging has evolved beyond mere personal ramblings on a virtual platform. It’s become a new literary art form, complete with attractive designs, colorful graphics, blended banners, and regular updates.
We live in a world of machines where we have to keep track of everything, from labels and markers for electronic equipment to the content that criss-crosses the globe via the Web; yet within this mechanized world there’s an increased opportunity to express the human spirit.
Blogging is one of the primary avenues for this.
First: Web log becomes a blog
In a virtual culture that thrives on zany names for applications and domain names, the mashing of two words, “web” and “log,” was a perfectly logical way of naming this developing trend. The word “blog” is concise and descriptive, and it rolls off the tongue in a monosyllable.
Ships at sea have logs, as do starships, according to the Star Trek mythos, so it fits that writers should have logs, too.
Second: The blog evolved into a virtual newspaper
Publishing has always been an agonizing process for writers. For centuries, it was the domain of the dedicated few who won the endorsement of a publishing house or magazine.
Journalism also favored only the few and the proud. With blogging, the idea of extraordinary talent and minimal opportunity has been tossed out. Now anyone who has an idea about anything is free to write, publish, and deliver his or her sliver of wisdom to the world.
Third: The blog may become a social network
Blogging is more than just an art form, a new form of literary expression, or an alternative to traditional journalism. Like all human media, it’s incapable of resisting evolution … which raises the question: What’s the future of blogging?
One future trend might be that blogs will break away from being a variation of a website and begin to look more like a social network. There are examples of this already.
Friendster, Myspace, and Livejournal are blogs on social networks. However, these platforms have one serious limitation: They do not encourage customization. They’re also difficult to monetize.
According to SpeckyGeek, the blog of the future may consist of a fully-customized, individuated blog on a popular social network. It will be a place to express personal opinions, mingle with others, and make a living from monetization.
Today, there are about 150 million blogs as well as millions of users who love social networks. Tomorrow, blogs and social networks may merge into blog networks.
