I see a lot of us are still struggling to define what 'blogging is, and also what it has the power to be. I guess I am struggling too. I feel it is a new power, but I don't know its scope. It's a communication tool, but what parts of it are just fun and frivolous and what parts are revolutionary? How will it change the way people communicate?
I learned something powerful about communication when my son was about 4 years old. He was diagnosed with hearing problems (he ultimately became profoundly deaf--although he now has a cochlear implant and talks on the phone, does great in school and listens to rotten music just like his sisters). But in those first years after his diagnosis he had to have lots of speech therapy. And one of the sounds that he had to spend a lot time learning was the sound represented by the letter "s".
I never realized this (although it's obvious if you think about it) if a child can't hear the letter "s" then they can't distinguish when people are referring to an object as singular as opposed to plural. We hear someone say there are "a lot of boats" on the water and the hearing-impaired child just hears "a lot of boat." We take it for granted, but most kids don't have to be "taught" the concept of plurality. Normal kids learn it because they have ready access to certain data (i.e. awareness that the letter "s" that occurs at the end of some words). So, sounds teach us concepts.
I wonder if the blogging thing is like a new sound for all of us. And there is a concept in there that we can sort of detect but we don't quite know what to make of it. No doubt one day we will.
