Conversation.

I write with some trepidation today as I know my wife may become angry after reading this... you see, she hates blogs about blogging [i.e. if you're one of those who says "I'm sorry I haven't blogged," she will still read your blog, but only with loathing]. But today isn't one of those - because I blog regularly [only, more infrequently than I used to] so I refuse to apologize for a lack of posts at this juncture.

Into the blog.

How do you Google?

More specifically, when you want information, how do you use Google [or preferred search engine] for your web search? You may think this is crazy, but I generally ask Google the information I want to find - and it usually comes back with a stellar answer.

Today's question: Why Blog? I thought that the answer Google shot back was a little short of incredible. There are, of course, more answers out there - but the common threads were that people wanted to communicate [to be heard] and wanted to be part of something bigger than themselves [you know, like a community of sorts]. It's not necessarily surprising - weren't we told at some point that in the beginning was the Word and that after the Word had created one man, the Word said that it wasn't good for that one man to be alone?

I'm sure I've said or blogged this before, but I think the American ethos has long been one of isolationism [it was part of our national identity - it's a policy the George Washington espoused]. Furthermore, it's spilled over into the American dream - it's what keeps us at arms length from the other families in our neighborhood, the problems of our cities, and what motivates us to move out to the suburbs or the country where our nearest neighbor is a mile [or an acre] away.

In the midst of our loneliness, we long to be together. What is occurring and has been occurring in the blogosphere since 1999 is an ongoing event wherein people seem to feel like they're being listened to - where they have a voice, where they are admired, where they are wanted. Blogging provides a forum where we answer the questions that we wish people were asking us.

To another point, sometimes we blog because we already are part of a community and we wish to continue to the edification, knowledge, and intimacy that already exists there. The blogosphere provides another medium through which we can stay "connected."

Still, it's the juxtaposition of these two images that interested me in the first place: on the one hand you have an individual with typing on a piece of equipment with a connection to the Internet. On the other hand, that individual longs not to remain as they are, but to become something of a larger whole.

Altogether, is that amazing or amazingly sad? Two questions then, Why do you blog? and How do you see your blog integrated into your community?

If you post a response and contact me via e-mail or via comment here, then I'll link up for the sake of dialogue. These are some of the other blogs addressing the same questions that I referenced earlier: Sandhill Trek, The Journal, MarketingProfs Daily Fix, WebMasterView, SoloSEO, iBLOGthere4iM.