Holy multimedia, Batman!

Hello, to all of you out there!

Thanks for tuning in for today's program, "Musings from the "educated" mind..."

First, thanks and preamble...

Ten pages of mind-numbing drivel later, here I sit. Ready to proclaim that, against all odds, I finally finished that God forsaken paper! Praise be to professors who accept electronic submissions!

I really should have finished that paper days ago - there was really nothing substantiative to it... not like it's research, or anything. I did, however take frequent breaks to play around with my favorite social networking page, send a few pontificating, yet generally useless e-mails and to follow some new and interesting blogs.

And now it's time for..."Greetings, Props and Validation of Others!"

Hello, to all my new and exciting blogspot friends out there! Thanks again, to seeallywrite for yet another thought-provoking blog entry...

Which got me to thinking...

There are literally hundreds of thousands of blogs out there. And some people have two. Two? Really? What could you possibly have to say that would warrant submission and upkeep for two blogs? I understand that this is really a lot of the pot calling the kettle black. Because, here I sit, submitting and upkeeping my very own blog. But seriously?

So, I guess the $64,000 question is, "what do I do to distinguish my blog from the other hundreds of thousands of other blogs out there?"

This is of course to say nothing of the fact that the contents of some are intensely personal. Think size, color and frequency of your last twenty bowel movements. Then add some male pattern baldness, a few Bible verses to help you cope. It makes me wonder where exactly all those journals, diaries and sparkly pens have gone.

You remember your diary, don't you? The princess and/or superhero adorned notebook with the cheap lock that your brother routinely broke into? And of course you remember feeling the outrage and humiliation of knowing that now everyone, absolutely everyone knows (insert teenage trauma of choice, here), and you'll never, ever get over it!

Where exactly has the written word gone? Why is letter writing, journalling suddenly considered avante garde?

When my husband and I were courting (such an old word, isn't it? An old word for such a young lady...), I wrote him nearly every day. And to the people around me, it just seemed so...odd. Why write, when you could e-mail or call? The information is there instantly. Immediate gratification and information sharing. But then, every once in a while, I will catch him in a private moment...re-reading those old love letters. The ones that smell of my perfume, and have travelled thousands of miles - to assure him that in spite of our separation, I carried him everywhere with me in my heart.

So, what to make of these new cyber-journals, e-love notes and 'social networking' pages? Do these mediums, while faster and likely more efficient, contribute to the kind of connections and intimate relationships that we want to make with one another as a global community? Or do they contribute to the isolation and loneliness that we feel as individual members of a faster, more efficient culture?

I shall wait here, with baited breath, for your comments. This, in turn should serve to electronically validate my thoughts and my personality (via my writing), which would save me from investing my own time and energy in ensuring that I am secure enough in myself not to need them in the first place.

Thanks to all of you in advance...

See you then. Same Bat time, same Bat channel.