Why I Blog: A Reaction

    Andrew Sullivan's "Why I Blog" brings so much insight about how journalism has changed due to blogging.  Sometimes I forget just how much power every person on the internet has when they blog.  Blogging lets us have our voice in every opinion and every matter.  While our opinions may not be seen or heard by the entire world, I know from experience that if you post things, you will get a response from someone. 
    The Tumblr community really came to mind when Sullivan discussed how immediately people feel like they need to respond and blog things.  While Tumblr is no news site, it does exemplify how we use digital media in our lives.  It gives us instant gratification to be able to post what we want, when we want and also allows us to respond to these posts instantly.  When Sullivan said "To blog is to...let go of your writing in  a way, to hold it at arm's length, open it to scrutiny, allow it to float in the ether for a while, and to let others...pivot you toward relative truth", I thought about this more in the context of personal blogs.  For a lot of people, I feel like blogs killed their journals or diaries.  A blog allows them to share their experiences, their joys, even their dark days of downfalls with the world with a click of the mouse.  And through writing I believe we truly get to know ourselves better.
    Another idea I enjoyed was the personality aspect of blogs and how his readers address him by his first name when they bump into him on the street, whereas if he was publishing on paper a lot of people would address him as "Mr. Sullivan".  Blogs allow us to communicate in a new way that allows us to show our true colors.  He describes this as "friendship" and how he "writes for thousands and thousands of friends".  Since he is his own editor he can write exactly as he wishes, and people will see what he wants them to see.  I am making this a goal for myself on tumblr - to make more people see the real me and become engaged in my posts.  Just as well, I think I will become more proactive about engaging in conversations with the other bloggers of  tumblr.