Several years ago, a friend of mine invited me into an ongoing conversation at a bar counter in a restaurant about the differences between a blog and a diary. I was eagerly presented as an expert of all things media and specifically the internet. While I had some experience and interest for several years in media studies, this pedestal on which I was presented was inherently false. I was by no means an expert. I certainly did not have a degree in the subject. In fact I considered media in general and the internet specifically to be too vast as subjects for any individuals to be named “THE expert.” The truth was, my friend, already somewhat inebriated was probably trying to prove a point and would have presented me as the crown prince of the internet if that would have forwarded his argument. I wanted to shrug away the discussion at that point but subject intrigued me.
At that time, despite my interest in the media, blogging as a concept made me feel like I had fallen behind the technology curve. In theory I knew what a blog was and had a read a few of them, but despite media reports to the contrary and all the buzz and excitement, I simply did not see them as anything of real value. My mind was full of the questions, many of which are still valid today.
Why would anyone want to blog? Why would people take time out of their lives to talk about themselves or express ideas to other random unknown individuals? Who is listening or reading? Who cares about this stuff? Am I really interested in the potentially misinformed opinions and deeply boring life of a pimply teenager living out of his dingy basement in Romania (Romania being replaceable by any other country here)? Why would anyone care? Why are people saying that this could change the world when I cannot see a single global problem solvable through a blog? In a world where talk is cheap and action is rare, do blogs increase the talk and reduce the action?
With many people simply talking about their lives online, blogs appeared at one time, to have become a means of cheap voyeurism. People were simply reading the regularly updated diaries of others. Those who chose to write became the exhibitionists and the readers became global voyeurs sitting in their comfortable chairs, keeping their distance behind sobriquets selected on electronic networks, reading, taking notes and occasionally offering commentary. I knew of others who blogged to keep their friends abreast of their activities but here again, I could not see the value of blogging within this purpose, as opposed to sending out mass e-mails or even updated Christmas cards with life stories. There are of course, a limited number of blogs which far exceed this framework. Arianna Huffington’s blog comes to mind, but at this point, I would scarcely call her effort a mere blog anymore.
My question to myself was - Why would people think of themselves as important enough to be heard and read on any medium?
Also extending the diary and blog argument - Would that make “The Diary of Anne Frank” merely an archived blog? Who was I after all to be privy to the life of the young Anne Frank? In almost blog like fashion, her diary was updated to the point of hearing the footsteps of soldiers walking up to her family’s hiding place in Amsterdam, leaving me, the voyeur-reader wrenched and terrified for her. Her diary-blog was, like many blogs on the internet, stalled when events in her life no longer allowed her to make entries; events which lead to her tragic death with so many others during the second world war.
And yet Anne Frank’s diary is vastly read. It has now become a beloved book and a marker of her time and place. She has become important.
Infact, this example alone answers some questions. Blogs are different from diaries because they are for the most part, current. They are usually not read post mortem.
They also allow two other things which diaries do not allow. They allow “feedback,” which in some ways is the miracle of the internet. On the internet, through forums, blogs and so many others means, people can read, think and comment, both intelligently and stupidly to any and all entries, altering both the context and content of the original posts. They also allow something which Anne Frank did not get – they allow the individuals, through their words, to become powerful and important in their own time. The internet makes “spreading the word” ludicrously easy. This individual power is amorphous, not physical. Words in themselves have power and personal expression through those words is also powerful.
I also believe that in a funny way, the collective of blogs will become a marker of this time and place, just as Anne Frank’s diary became of hers.
I certainly do not consider myself important enough to be read. For this reason alone, I avoided writing a blog for the longest time, despite friends who tried to convince me otherwise. But like many people, I have “thoughts” – funny, stupid, intelligent, illogical, intellectual, angry and everything else thoughts. What use are those thoughts, even to me, if they are not occasionally noted down? And even when noted down, they serve no purpose except smug self satisfaction if they are not aired. When aired, they become self expression. Blogs champion this cause and self expression shines through.
Since I believe that words have power and self expression shines through, I started this blog. – a simple means of self expression. I shall try and steer away from boring life stories about my visits to the beach, backyard barbeques and bad bosses. I hope to avoid this being a mere verbal exhibition about my life. My life is simply too ordinary and I am too unimportant to be interesting. Instead, I intend to start only with ideas and thoughts. I do not know the value of reading my ideas, but knowing the internet, I know that they will probably be read – by someone somewhere - maybe even by the pimply teenager in Romania who will read what I write, only to raise his fists to the screen and cuss violently in a language I do not understand.
I wanted a blog name to reflect my respect for the ability of the internet to spread information and ideas like wild fire – thus my somewhat self indulgent title, Thoughtfire. I wanted my name to reflect the amorphousness of the medium, defying gender, race, age and true definition – Urban. I have no delusions of grandeur. I do not intend to solve any global problems through this blog. I know I have not started something big…. but here, with this reflective post, I have happily started something small.
