9.02.2009

Mr. Sullivan, Why Do You Blog?

Patience is a virtue rarely seen in today's fast paced society. Without bloggers such as Andrew Sullivan, most of the population would be at a loss. Consider a world before the constant current event update. If Andrew Sullivan had never discovered the then underground spread of news, chaos would continue to plague the unorganized news highlights of typical webpages. Sullivan accidentally stumbled upon the new reverse rolodex of the digital community.

For Sullivan, the idea of spreading current news throughout the world in a matter of moments after its occurence did not come until after he concurred his fear of technology and began with past works of art and research. Once he discovered this free-form public diary, there was no turning back. He found blogging as a way to relieve the stresses of journalistic office work. It gave him, and other previously voiceless individuals, the ability to show creativity and personal opinion not available in structured informative news writing.

The most interesting quote to catch my eye was Sullivan's true boiled down opinion of the blogging world, "There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannnot be rivaled by print".  This can be considered the most quintessential purpose of blogging. Generally, by the time a story is printed in the paper the entire country has heard it, and misconstrued it, to an almost fabricated rumor. With real time blog updates the news has less opportunity to morph into the thoughts and ideas of others. It has a way of trademarking itself due to its semi-permanent appearance. Some may accuse blogging of consuming the need for a traditional pen and paper method, but bloggers, such as Sullivan, realize the boundaries where "matter dictates medium".