The Narcissism of Blogging

I found myself sitting here trying to come up with some content for this new blog and was totally stumped. I started writing something about human decency or blah blah blah and it occurred to me that no one would even care. And why should they? I'm not particularly bright or eloquent. Certainly not more bright or eleoquent than many of the people out there already creating content on the internets. Why do I want to share my mediocre thoughts, and why do I think you might agree or be interested?

This free publishing space created by the internets is a really neat thing, and its current use reflects on our culture in an interesting way. It's a cool experiment that everyone who wants one can have a blog. Some really great things might get created by people who wouldn't otherwise have the means. Indeed, you can stop reading this very sentence and click on an icon at the top of the page and begin your own.

Also, what about Myspace? Mespace? We don't even have to create content there. For many of us, its really just a shrine to our preferences and ourselves. I'm not saying its bad, just narcissistic. And here I am contributing to it. Myspace a great way to remind yourself that its about time you sent an e-mail to your friends off somewhere else. Its similar to the internets in general in that it's an effective way to share cool content with people that they'd otherwise miss. At the same time though, isn't it staggering to think about how many users are signed up there and other places creating little personal shrines? Is it tied-in to other ways in which our society is self-indulgent? Here's a related NPR story I heard about a month ago.