Why We Blog, Part 3 of 4: Intellectual Coffee Talk
Posted in The Gnovis Blog
Margarita, in her contribution to this series, likened her
blogging history with telenovela. Since this is my first blog, my relationship
with blogging is more like a first date. I’m excited and eager to make a good
impression, nervous but trying to sound as relaxed as I can in my perpetual
state of over-caffeination. I’m sure at
some point well meaning friends offered the same advice to prepare me for both
activities – just be yourself.
My task in this first blogging effort is to answer Brad’s prompt
‘why do I blog?’ or tailored for my situation – Why do I read, comment and am
now attempting to write blogs? I participate in the blogosphere for the same
reason Picasso, Joyce, and countless other intellectuals sat in Parisian coffee
shops. The gnovis blog is described as
intellectual coffee talk and that is the perfect metaphor. Since the 17th century when Isaac
Newton frequented London coffee shops, these places represented an aspect of
our public culture where ideas (good and bad), perspectives, and theories can
be shared, tested out and argued. The
unique quality shared by the coffee shop culture and by the blogosphere is that
the ideas and arguments presented are more nebulous then concrete.
The legacy of the coffee shop intellectual has not died with
the spread of Starbucks… rather the scene has found a new (and in my opinion improved)
platform. But the blogosphere is
infinitely more pluralistic and dynamic than any coffee shop or piazza in
history. It is a place to share and
argue ideas with people across the word.
It offers an outlet for students and life-long learners to test out new
theories or discuss trends in technology and politics. It is a place to be
critical or supportive. It is also a
place where the end of the conversation is not determined by the waning of the
day but by waning user interest. If
coffee shops where the intellectual playground of so many great minds from which
sprung many of the great works of art and fundamental concepts of our
contemporary democratic society, imagine what blogs, our hyperlinked mega
playground, will help to create!
To end my first date with blogging I would like to add –
Today is my birthday. 25 years old and
one blog post down…. Many more to come.