"Blog"-ito Ergo Sum

In doing research on the topic of blogging I've come across so many weblogs I feel like I've acquired some of kind of virus. In fact, I fell asleep this afternoon because I think my brain (or my vision) couldn't handle the bytes any more. The really personal weblogs are cute but on the whole, probably of very little value in general to people who already have more than enough to read. I'd like to see weblogs that focus on a kind of amateur journalism - put real thought into their writing as if to compel others to read. I feel that some of these diarists are diminishing the art of writing by eliminating the barrier between personal and public, silent thought and spoken word. Writing also tends to makes one's fleeting notions, no matter how hare-brained, more concrete - if I wrote down everything thought that passed through my head in a day, I wouldn't know what I thought about anything anymore. It's true the keeping a journal tends to increase your proclivity to write, but blogging could turn that act into self-obsession and obliterate all formal writing for an individual. And I'm just a little worried that this explosion of blogs will crowd out the more purposeful voices and will lead to a general lack of interest in weblogs as a tool for public dialogue and commercial-free expression. As usual, it seems that our huge population with its widespread access and enormous amount of leisure time demands that blogging become professionalized to be useful. There was a time when people used to sit around a fire and play instruments, make up stories and songs, and sing or dance with abandon. Now we have orchestras, publishing houses, and music labels for that sort of thing. I have the feeling like blogging's hour will arrive sooner rather than later - if the hour has not already arrived.