just incidentally, because the idea of blogging irks me for some reason...

Why am I here?  What am I doing?  Would I be doing this if I didn't HAVE to?

A part of me thinks it's quite egotistical to blog.  What is so important about MY words, that I need to showcase it on a public platform for others to read?  I don't feel quite right, here in the blogosphere, just because I don't feel as if I have anything interesting or useful or different or amazingly insightful to add.  I will be addressing issues relating to my university unit, Virtual Cultures, and all that I'll have to offer are my paltry opinions.  Inconsequential opinions.

As far as I can see, a blogger would have to be supremely confident in their opinions and their online identity to start a blog in the first place, much less with the the expectation and desire for it to be read.  Either that, or lonely; wanting to leave their footprint in the virtual world, however much it will be stamped over.

I'm interested to see whether I get "hooked" on the blogging thing, or if I do it just for the sake of achieving a passing grade.  I think I'll enjoy reading about what interests me, in relation to Virtual Cultures... electronic literature, etc.  Actually writing the blog and seeing my words on the screen, I think, will be a different matter.

this here 'internet' thing...

I can't remember the last time I've been in a bank, because online banking does everything for me.  I can't remember the last time I physically walked into a video rental place - Netflix, baby.  I don't use maps anymore because whereis.com.au will tell me exactly where to go, and how long it will take me to get there.  I haven't let 'my fingers do the walking' through the Yellow pages in years, I let them do the typing instead.  When I flick through New Idea or Famous magazine and am looking at pictures I saw on the Net days ago, I know that celebrity gossip magazines, to me, are dead, gone the way of cassette tapes and Lindsay Lohan's career.  Sites like ONTD are my crack, keeping me updated on the hour to hour happenings of celebrities I know far too much about.

Basically, the World Wide Web is wonderful, wonderful place, a system of 'interconnected computer networks linked by hyperlinks and URLs' I use very regularly, but hadn't thought too much about before this unit.  I hadn't even thought about how much I value the Web and how much I would suffer if it were suddenly taken away from me.  I don't have an 'active mind' regarding the Internet.  I love it, I use it, but I don't think too much about it.  I've never considered the concept and implications of 'virtual cultures' before, even though I'm thoroughly immersed in a few.  To be honest, it's hard for me to get too excited about topics like net consumerism, hyperlocal socialization etc etc.  I like to critique celebrity baby names and Britney's weaves on the internet, not think deeply about it.  It is an embarrassing truth and one that I'm not proud of, but true nonetheless.  To me, the World Wide Web was a shallow place existing mainly for my entertainment, and I'm amazed at the depth and brevity of it.

I thought I would steer this blog towards topics that have interested and excited me, within the Virtual Cultures framework.  As a second year Creative Writing student, the impact of the internet on journalism in regards to citizen journalism was particularly interesting, as was the existence of 'e-lit.'  Prepare for more blogs related to these!

References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet