Blurt it out in a shared blog

I'm blogged out. I've spent the week reading far too many of these wretched things and my head is swirling with far too much information that I don't need to know.

Blogs are not just endemic on the web, they're a contagion that cannot be stopped.

You don't know what I'm talking about? Where have you been? Blog is short for weblog, which is like an online diary.

Definitions vary but the one at blogger.com is as good as any: "A blog is a webpage made up of usually short, frequently updated posts that are arranged chronologically - like a What's New page or a journal ... Blog posts are like instant messages to the web."

In other words, they're a place to blurt. Or as blogger.com puts it: "Over one million people have started. Isn't it your turn to say what's on your mind?"

But it's blogger.com's motto - "push-button publishing for the people" - that encapsulates most of what blogs do.

What are they about? Everything and nothing. To get a sense of the enormous range, start with blog indexes such as Daypop or Blogdex.

For more focused sites try Blogs4business, Scripting News, Blogs4God and Instapundit.com.

The United States Army has one. So does columnist Dave Barry - "I am calling on the entire population of the world to drop whatever it is doing and join the urgent search for Cher's wig" - , the Harvard Law School and the homeless guy.

For the local variety, try Kiwiblogs or Public Address, where writers such as Russell Brown rant: "It seems that God-bothering and religious bigotry run deep in the Bush dynasty..."; and Deborah Dailey talks about the path to enlightenment through yoga: "I feel compelled to talk about ashtanga, because when I started this blog I had one aim in mind: I wanted to write optimistic."

The blogging lexicon also gives an idea of the scope. There you can discover new words like: "Blawg, noun - a weblog written by lawyers and/or concerned primarily with legal affairs". Or "Blogerati, noun - The blogosphere (qv) intelligentsia" and "Kittyblogger, noun - Technically someone who uses their blog to write about their cats, but is used mostly to describe mundane Journal Blog (qv) content. Often used as an epithet but not always taken as one."

There is also "Blogorrhea", the meaning of which is fairly self-explanatory.

But why do they do it?

Because they can: The technology to blog gets better and easier to use by the day.

Anyone with a PC and internet connection can visit one of the many blogging sites and create his or her own blog in a matter of minutes. But that's not all. Thanks to tools such as Kablog or Foneblog, users can "moblog" from their cellphone or handled computer, in text or audio clips.

Because it's therapy - I blog, therefore I am: Exposing snippets of your mundane life makes you feel less alone: "I found class pointless so I skipped it to write you ... Today my heart ached more than usual, like it yearned for him or something ... "

And it's good for getting things off your chest: "I hate Bush. Not only has he got to be the President with the lowest IQ in history, but he's also got hidden agenda stamped all over his chimpanzee face."

The latter can sometimes be confused with those who think they have something to say: "So, if we resorted to having sex for war in retaliation for the no-sex/no-war effort, what do we do about the Pope wanting us to fast for peace?"

Or perhaps they just want to share: "Life has intervened, meaning a light blogging day ahead. But here are a few pieces of healthcare news I found of interest..."

Because it is ordained: As it says in The Bible, "In the beginning was the word". Now, thanks to blogs, the word has gone forth and truly multiplied. Probably not what God had in mind.

* Email Chris Barton

blogger.com

Daypop

Blogdex


Scripting News

Blogs4god


America's Army

Dave Barry

Harvard Law School

The homeless guy

Kiwi blogs

Public Address

Blog Glossary

Kablog

Foneblog