The irony of blogging

Categories: Wormie Says

The Net is full of blogs. Most of them have two things in common. Firstly, most of them are by anonymous writers. This is especially so for personal blogs. Secondly, most blogs present a point of view, discussions on current events or just simply telling the world about encounters one has in his/her daily life. So what is so ironical about blogging?

To see the irony, one must understand why people blog in the first place. People blog because they want to share something with the world at large. This can be the everyday encounter as one goes through the passage of life, sharing of experiences, of opinions regarding politics, current affairs or just to rant about any frustrations one encounters. Bloggers may just want to keep a record of the life just like writing in a diary. No matter what the reasons for blogging, one thing is certain - the blogger wishes to share something with anyone who cares to read the blog. They wanted to be heard, to be counted and hopefully make a difference. They hope to change opinions if not move the world.

How is this different from the coffeeshop talk, so popular in our part of the world? In coffeeshop talk, generally the people involved are known to each other. The audience is therefore small. Opinions generally do not change with the few participants. In the world of blog however, the audience is potentially large, directed at nobody and anybody at the same time. With such a large potential audience, opinions are necessarily varied. Here is where the irony of blogging comes in.

The blogger wanted to be heard. He wanted to be counted. He wanted to make a difference. However he wanted to remain anonymous! If you wanted to be heard, why hide under the cloak of anonymity? Why spend hours preparing and writing the blogs and not recognised? Why tell the whole world your life story and yet not prepared to tell the world who you are? Does writing anonymously any different from writing your thoughts in a diary, the sacred and private personal space? Why feel anxious and frustrated when that site counter does not move? Why get disillusioned when nobody leave any comments to a blog which you think will create a controversy?

So how useful can a blog be? Despite its anonymity, blogs can still be useful if the contents do make a difference to someone's life. This is because the writer is not important, but the content is. This is especially true for those blogs which discusses current affairs, life experiences and those touching on special interest. If the content is relevent and useful, whether the writer is young or old, male or female is irrelevant. The exchange of ideas is what counts, and precisely because of such exchanges of ideas, the society progresses. Each builds on the others ideas. On the other hand, blogs that chronicles ones life story maybe lost its usefulness and relevance if it is anonymous. This is because if no face is attached to such life experiences, the impact and the authenticity may be lost, making such experiences akin to the work fiction.

The spread of blogs and discussion groups on the Net has been partly attributed to its anonymity. Hence should the lively discussions that blogs bring about be removed of such anonymity? I think not. Anonymity had been present for a long time under the guise of pen-name. Authors had been using pen names for their books. Nobody had question why authors do not use their given name. Some authors even have a few pen names for different genre of novels. If authors can remain anonymous, shouldn't bloggers be granted the same choice? After all, there is no such thing as true anonymity as there are always ways to find out the real identity of a blogger if one is committed enough. And just like novels, the true identity of the blogger is secondary to the ideas presented. The identity just act as an address so that the site can be identified and revisited.

So where does that leave me? I think I will remain Wormie for the time being. Hopefully people read my blogs because of the content and not because who I am. However, at the back of my mind, I wish to enjoy the recognition that my blogs may bring. What an irony!