blog, blog, blog. everyone has a blog.

i was just getting caught up on my blog reading and was amazed at how many people actually have them. i don’t keep up with current events. i know that sounds quite lame, but it’s a habit that formed after last september and i haven’t broken it and don’t intend to. when something really huge happens, one way or another, i find out about it. often times, it’s through someone’s blog.

i’m not sure what part of me is pulled in by blogs. my inner artist, writer, or anthropologist? i like seeing the intimate moments of people’s lives, and not in a voyeuristic way. it’s in the postings of your average person that humanity shines through and the internet comes to life. you begin to feel connected to the rest of the planet in a way that has never before been possible.

it makes me think about how historians will view us in the far flung future. as anthropologists and archaeologists struggle to piece together our collective past, i muse on how much easier a time future researchers will have in gathering data and getting a clear picture of what life is like today.

yes, of course the amount of information they’ll have to sort through is astounding, but the search tools are already built in to enable them to pick and choose through the mounds of 1s and 0s now littering cyberspace. what amazing connections will they be able to make when they search for keywords like ‘manatee’ or ‘persimmon’? they’ll get results from such varied sources as 10 year olds who want to be marine biologists, artists who draw the gentle sea cows, people musing on the use of persimmon in japanese poetry and the proper fertization methods for maintaining a fruit tree of one’s own. what conclusions will they draw from the results? will that youngster who dreams of exploring the seas go on to become a world famous biologist? will poetry be written about fertilizer? how will our blogs impact future culture. oh, to be around to find out!