More questions than answers.

The first in a series of musings about the Internet - the great leveller of class, creed and ethnicity or just another tool to be exploited?

Sometimes I truly wonder what the hell I'm doing.

At the moment there are friends of mine who are facing or have recently faced death and here I am - blogging. So the question remains, to blog or not to blog?

Blogging as a medium is a fantastic leveller - it's the Internet 2.0 - greater connectivity, increased input, the mass media produced by the masses, justice and equality for all *ahem*. But quite frankly, is it all it's cracked up to be? I rarely blog, it's true. Mostly because who the hell wants to listen to my drivel? Then again, there are several blogs I follow, made by all kinds of people - my friends, writers, celebrities - and I enjoy them immensely. Perhaps it's a twisted sense of living vicariously... I caught myself talking with my partner about Neil Gaiman's blog. I was updating him (my partner) about the 'Coraline' premiere, refering to the man as 'Neil' - as though I knew him personally, that we were 'like that' - you have to imagine crossed fingers here... I know it's hard but do try! There is this strange sense of intimacy that blogs generate, as readers we begin to feel as though we really 'know' the person, forgetting one simple truth - we only see what we are shown.

There are those who believe that if we pay close enough attention, 'read betweeen the lines' we will discover nuances about our blog-amours. Back to my mate, Neil. He was recently listed as the top 13th Celebrity Blog; a distinction based purely on the number of 'followers'. Not surprisingly, Stephen Fry came at number one with nigh on 99,000 followers. This is a man who had to post on his Facebook page that he couldn't accept any more 'Friends' not because he was being snobbish but simply because he couldn't keep up. Yes, truly we are in a great age, the age of The Internet 2.0 - a stalker's best friend.

Whilst some may consider such a viewpoint as paranoid, I tend to find it isn't the malicious intent of others so worrying but the total naivety on the part of the masses to protect themselves agains such insalubrious 'designs'. A perfect point in case are those who post pictures of themselves, off their trolleys out on a night on the tiles on their Facebook and wonder why they've been passed over for promotion. Or the young secondary teacher, whose My Space page has inappropriate (in a school context) language and content, who finds themselves the victim of harassment by students. Whilst, harassment is completely inappropriate in any context, my point here is that these people left themselves wide open for ridicule at best, and serious harm to themselves at worst.

A worst case scenario was played out recently when a husband, estranged from his wife, murdered her after she changed her status from 'married' to 'single' on Facebook. I've seen vicious bullying, particularly among girls - some as young as 8 and 9, over not being listed in their 'Top Ten Friends'. The situation would be absurd if it weren't so incredibly tragic. The technology designed to make the world more close-knit, like any technology, can and has been abused.

But surely, none of these are related to blogging? Isn't blogging simply and innocuous form of written diarrhoea? A cute diary of what we're doing and what we think on any given day. Some blogs are just that - others are places for people to share their talents, whether that's poetry, knitting or baking - I found a brilliant blog the other day on using Image editing software, in plain English not tekky gobbledygook. Blogs can also be a catharsis or the golden opportunity to showcase your work skills. However, the dark side of blogs can include the rants, the verbal bashings of a variety of people and institutions that were once reserved for specialist newsletters, magazines and Letters to the Daily Mail. In the worst cases, some blogs are simply excuses to incite hate and rage.

So what do we do when we come across this sort of content? Is it allowable? Do we have the right to object, especially if we believe in freedom of speech?

As with all things, we end with more questions than answers.

Stay tuned for the second part of this series.