Conclusions

I think one of the reasons blogs are so popular is to do with how society has changed in the cyberage. Wherever we go, media of all forms are transmitted to us. I know personally that I often come home after work, turn on the television, turn on the computer and have up to 5 web pages running while simultaneous managing to somehow keep up with the television programme and chat with my flatmates. We are living in an age where media transmitted to us in multiple layers. Blogging is a perfect example of a layer of media that also allows the further dynamic of our own interaction with the sources of knowledge. Blogging, I think, is indicative of the future of media: fast, up-to-date, and interactive. Roberts-Witts, commenting on the ‘cult of blogging’ quotes Merholz as looking forward to a future where blogs may form a ‘digital stream of consciousness’ (2001:78).

Where knowledge is concerned, objectivity has been traditionally valued, but perhaps blogging exemplifies a shift towards valuing subjectivity. Computers in the home could well enough be called HCs – home computers, but they are more commonly referred to as PCs – personal computers. People are becoming cyborgs – intimately connected to their computers and other ICTs such as cellular phones. We feel disconnected from the world without them and they are more and more becoming our portals for communicating and interacting with others. Computers may isolate people from real physical human to human interactions but I think that people are becoming accustomed to and even enjoying personal expression on the internet and ICTs are evolving to adapt to our communication needs. Blogging has become a means for this expression, a way of being seen and heard, and a way of connecting ideas and information in the cyberage.