i know why the caged blogger blogs

i think that i understand why the blogger blogs; a catharsis unmatched in anonymity. a blog is a series of screams into the dark, but the screamer does not perceive the dark as such. rather, the dark is an abstract giver of value. the abstract listener is an automatic promise of agreement given by nameless viewers. the spell is cast when the page ticker increases, and the spell broken when real feedback is given. thus there is the option to disallow feedback. in a world that does not allow a single squeal, we turn to a seemingly vast and unknown comforter: internet users. when the scream is merely a cry for attention, we burn crimson embarrassment when the attention is manifested in a location other than the subconscious. when the cry is in rage, we later either deny such rage or explain the cathartic effect. actually, we have drawn true comfort from the ever listening computer screen.

the conclusion is thus: the blogging is a poor solution for the disconnection between peoples. we blog what we cannot say elsewhere; blogs become a repository for the mental states that are tacitly unacceptable. when we ought to come closer to our brother and sister, we instead "deal" by coming closer to a virtual entity. aside from the obvious problems that occur from interacting with strangers, we damage our ability to be open with fellow humans. it is as if a person chose to speak to himself or herself for an entire year whenever he or she wanted to engage in humor. afterward, he or she would no longer be versed in humor understandable to another.

perhaps this is not the case for all of us. we might blog intelligently, hoping to raise opinions and questions to stimulate discussion that would otherwise not occur. we might truly seek feedback. but if we seek much more than opinions by giving blogs more than opinions, then we wrongly use the blog to gain a phantom comfort, a phantom confidence, a phantom worth.