In Praise of Blogging (sort of)

I’m still straddling the fence a bit on this issue but I’ll try to summarize a few of my thoughts on what blogs can and cannot do. in my opinion a blog can do the following things reasonably well:

• Provide a spark for starting new conversations.
• Introduce a new idea and provide some clarity as to how it should be discussed.
• Bounce ideas off of different people of diverse backgrounds.
• Help people stay current on the thoughts of people who are geographically distant.
• Give people the chance to lay out their arguments in relatively orderly fashion.
• Provide a way for bloggers to engage in shameless self-promotion and fatherly pride.
  

A blog cannot:

• Replace or simulate a real conversation. In my opinion the ’safety’ of commenting from a distance fundamentally changes the nature of a conversation.
• Provide for an in-depth discussion of a significant idea or problem. I think that a blog demands novelty and this makes it difficult to consider ideas over a period of more than a couple of days.
• Replace the depth of reflection that happens in more face-to-face kinds of conversation. What a person believes is essentially tied up in who they are. If that knowledge is absent then the conversation will be always be limited.
• Explain why ‘Roundaldo‘ is still starting for Brazil when he’s 20 lbs overweight (slight exaggeration).