Many of us find it hard to imagine life without the internet and the world wide web, yet it has only been since the mid 1990's (around ten years) that it has been widely accessible. Its impact has been literally life and world changing.
One of the more recent offshoots has been the growth of the blogosphere. The very earliest blogs began perhaps five or six years ago. Now a full blown international community has grown up around them, linking people from all over the world into what could easily be labeled as tribes. Groups of bloggers coalesce around shared ideas and viewpoints and form a community. Cohesion is provided by links and trackbacks. It is common to find a community of blogs who share the same commentors. One only has to look at the explosive growth of a community like MySpace which is largely inhabited by teenagers today to see the possiblities for the future.
These online relationships often extend into "real life" in the form of conferences and blog meets. I know of at least one marriage that is a result of blogging, and sadly, today the blogging world expereinced its first significant death, that of Acidman. You only have to look at his site, Gut Rumbles, to see the impact that this man's life and death has had on people all over the world. Rob was able to reach a wider audience than he ever could have dreamed of ten years ago, and have a profound effect on the lives of people he could have never met. There are people all over the world tonight grieving for the loss of this man. He was not perfect, he was not a "Great Man", but he was a great man in the way he lived his life and fought to remain true to who he was. Hopefully his writing will be preserved, because it deserves it, both as an example of what blogging is all about, and to preserve the memory of a fine man.
One day sociologists will be studying the tribes and communities we have formed, and mining the archives of internet caches to study the online world we are living in. It's a brave new world we are forging, largely unwittingly.
As for myself, I cannot look at blogging the same again. Rob's death has shown me just how important these online friends are to me.
3 comments:
Thank you Gahrie. I don't know who could have said it better.
I really can't stop thinking about Rob since reading about the news yesterday. May he rest in peace, and smile down with us knowing the multitudes of people he taught and entertained. A very special writer, a unique man.
I read somewhere that Bird Flu is expected to arrive in the USA or Canada this fall.
It said it killed almost 60% of those who got infected.
Is it true ?
What can we do to avoid it ?
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