What's A Blog Anyway?

That's what I asked myself when I first heard the word.

What's a blog for?

Is it a kind of diary? But if it is, why not just save it on a hard drive instead of letting the whole world read it? In my day, diaries used to come with a lock and key, hidden in secret drawers, sometimes even written in clever code. Now I can read blogs of people from all over the world, and be let in on their dreams, thoughts and private musings.

Is it the written equivalent of reality TV, then? A chance for licenced, anonymous voyeurism into the private lives of strangers, as much as they are willing to expose themselves to the world?

And for the blogger, is it a conceited thirst for attention, for recognition, for affirmation? Is it a self-centered appeal to be noticed? To matter? To prove to the world that we are here? A case of "I blog, therefore I am?"

Or is it a chance to be heard? To express oneself, whether for clarity or catharsis? To put out one's thoughts into the vast reaches of the Web and see if anyone will care enough to listen?

And why is it called a "blog" at all?

Before I did "Ask Jeeves" about it and find out that "blog" is a nickname for the very boring "weblog," here were my theories, which were immensely more colourful than truth, I think:

• the term was coined from "blah log," which describes the common content of a huge chunk of the 60 million blogs in existence to date;
• it was inspired by the Batman/comics-type sound effect "kah-blog," denoting the sound of a heavy object hitting solid ground; and
• for me, especially, it came across as a shortcut for "back-log," representing my list of 30-plus (and growing) topics which I thought would be interesting to talk about in my blog.

Why blog at all? Why do people do it? What drives us to reveal our secret selves to anonymous readers? What compels us to show the world what we think and how we feel? How do bloggers overcome the instinctive gut feel of protecting their privacy, which many of us prize more than we are aware of ourselves, in order to share bits and pieces of themselves to people they might never meet?

And what does blogging say about what society has now become? About culture? About humanity? Are we morphing more and more into a global, albeit virtual, village? Or are we becoming more drawn to faceless friendships, preferring these to real-life relationships? Are we growing more detached from people around us, growing disinterested in direct, physical interaction with other humans? Are we craving for nameless intimacy in a safe medium? Are we becoming a virtual community?

Are we asking to be touched and known? Or do we mask ourselves under layers of unsigned prose for fear of it?