Interpretation of Sullivan's 'Why I Blog'

Reading this article was an eye opener.  I've come to think of the Internet as a brick wall cutting off human connections.  Though as a whole, the Internet is an excellent source for information, sites like Facebook actually prevent people from connecting on a deeply human level.  Birthday wishes are given over a few quick words on someone’s wall and emotions are left out of many conversations.  Reading this article, however, I gained a perspective on how the Internet can lead to deeper connections.  In how the news is reported by major newspapers, emotions are left out the majority of the time.  Author’s opinions are placed at far less value than the facts.  Sullivan says, “For bloggers, the deadline is always now. Blogging is therefore to writing what extreme sports are to athletics: more free-form, more accident-prone, less formal, more alive. It is, in many ways, writing out loud.”  Blogging allows for emotions to come out instantly, without time to edit them out.  It is an immediate stream of perspectives that readers can view to enter the author’s thoughts.  In addition, blogging allows for a conversation between writers and their readers.  Those reading a blog can comment back, add to the conversation and present new sources.  This brings about an intimacy between humans that isn’t present in reading a newspaper.  Sullivan describes this intimacy as friendship and I couldn’t agree more.  Before blogs, many people with literary talent had no outlet for their writing.  Now that it is provided, expression can happen at any time of the day and without the approval of publishers and editors.  Any expression can be posted on a blog for everyone to read.  What Sullivan says about linking stuck out to me.  I realized how the way sources are used has changed.  Where journalists of the past hid their sources from other journalists and news reporters, bloggers today link them right in a post.  This allows readers to fact check for themselves and develop their own perspectives.  It become harder for information to be skewed and allows for more truth in the flow of news.  Though many arguments occur in the comments section and between different blogs, it allows for the reader to view both sides of a story.  This article brought me to reconsider the purpose of the Internet and how humans have grown to rely on it.  As Sullivan said, though blogs don’t always offer truth, they provide opinions, differing perspectives and human intimacy.