The summer of blog

As I sit down, a little nervously, to write my very first blog entry, the date strikes me: July 1st, 2007. Summer started more than a week ago, but, in my memory, July really is when it kicks in: school is out, it is ok to stay out late, the sun does it too, anyway, and life becomes mellower.

Summer 1967, we are reminded everywhere, was the summer of love. The summer of blog, the incredible ascension of blogs, wikis and all these social networking applications, seems pretty far esthetically, but not necessary in spirit, from the hippie moment. Flowery dresses and unruly beards have been replaced by an improbable nerd fashion. For all its fun and genius in making a virtual reality accessible to all, the wii is no LSD. My knowledge in the latter, it should be said, is inexistent, but isn’t it a part of blogs’ fun to talk occasionally about things that one is less than certain about?

So, what is similar between today’s bloggers and 1967’s hippies? Their belief in a social mission, that of expressing dissent from the majority or the established view. Bloggers’ contrarianism, obviously, is quite scattered: some oppose the hypocrisy of big corporations, others the left and / or the right, others recriminate against recriminators in the subway while others still are merely finding a medium for the expression of their existential angst. The freedom of publishing online just about anything is at once exhilarating and unsettling if not infuriating, especially for people who are used to a world of gatekeepers (Academics, journalists, etc.).

Some could argue that, while hippies created communes and redid the world in social gatherings, today’s bloggers write from the comfort of their own home, or even of their own desk chair. Much has been said about the isolating effect of the Internet. Yet, blogging is no solitary activity: successful bloggers attract comments and attend religiously to their readers. As for wikis, they are downright collaborative, making the lonely process of writing a social experience.

So, here I am, a toe onto the bubbling world of “web 2.0”: as a researcher of these new applications it feels like the beginning of an ethnographic experience: to understand bloggers, thou shall become one. Looks like the ride will be fun.