Re: <nettime> The banality of blogging

[Eduardo Navas <eduardo@navasse.net>]

While it may be true that blogs and pens are mere tools, both
inventions have redefined the way people function, think, and
attain knowledge. Blogs as tools open up new possibilities for Mass
Communication, which, as many on this list may know, Raymond Williams
categorized as a one way street, where people could only hear what
those who defined media decided, with no possibility of immediate
feedback (the radio and television).

Today the individual is able to "speak back." (the limitations of this
act is what's worth thinking about, of course.) And while this may be
performed with a tool such as the blog which can be analogized with
the pen, the flows for dissemination and exchange of knowledge are
unprecedented today. So, I do think that it is necessary to theorize
about blogs. They are more than mere tools: they are our current way
of [re]defining ourselves in ways that were not possible before,
simply because blogs did not exist. Just like e-mail lists did not
exist not too long ago. Tools may be extensions of our anxieties and
interests but they also redefine us as they become part of our daily
reality.

Best,

Eduardo Navas.




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