Blogging about Blogging

Yesterday I read this article by Sarfraz Manzoor . I think he's missing the point, confusing a blog with the sort of diaries most of us kept as teenagers. They were most definitely private, the very opposite of a blog, potentially readable by millions of people.

Blogs are communicative, not sealed the way private diaries are. What makes a blog part of cyberspace is that clever wee invention, the hyperlink. That puts a blog into the Web, a tiny connexion in a fantastically complex chain.

Images are another big difference. Digital cameras mean that blogs can be illustrated from our daily lives, from our own environments. And even without a camera, there are millions of images on the Internet: you can illustrate any point you want to make.

Mind you, if you surf around the blogsphere, you'll find many a blog without hyperlinks or images, much like teenagers' diaries. (Just try clicking a dozen times on the 'next blog' button). Generally written all in lower case. Very insecure and sad. But then, these blogs perform a public service, a kind of do it yourself Samaritan, getting all the sadness off people's chests. Therapy. Let the world know, go on!

Talking of illustrations, this guild of ghost writers is great.