The Immediacy of Blogging

In Sullivan's article, the main answer for the question posed, "Why I blog?", is how immediate the blog can be. As Sullivan states, "We blog now - as news reaches us, as facts emerge." This makes blogging the most versatile mode of writing. It allows for ever-changing posts and "hourly writing" rather than "daily writing". This means that the blog will not only change as the news of the day, or of the hour changes but the blog will also change with the hourly feelings of the author. Now in saying that blogging is the most versatile mode of writing I am by no means discounting other modes of writing. Other modes of writing do not need to be ever-changing as the blog is. The fact that they are so static makes them more permanent, more meaningful if you will, than a blog. The blog gives these more permanent publications a "greater premium" and puts the writer, who can sift through all the chaotic ideas of the "blogosphere" and put the few coherent ones into a logical, orderly publication in a much higher esteem, than most of the bloggers who are simply throwing random ideas out onto the web.

Although I think the main answer to the question is what I stated above, I also feel that Sullivan appreciates the personal aspect of the blog. He recognizes that it is impossible for a blogger to conceal every single one of his or her personal feelings in a blog. So the blog exposes the writer to the reader in a way that can only condone a type of friendship. That friendship is not found in other forms of writing. It is exclusive to blogging and blogging depends upon that friendship. "These friends, moreover, are an integral part of the blog." This line by Sullivan means to me that without the human connection that a blog allows, the entity of the blog would disintegrate. I say this because that connection is what sets the blog apart from other modes of discourse. "When readers of my blog bump into me in person, they invariably address me as Andrew. Print readers don’t do that. It’s Mr. Sullivan to them." This line really shows how connected to the writer the blog really makes the reader feel.

So I guess to sum it up, the immediate and ever-changing aspect of the blog combined with the human connection it encourages enable the blog to be a valid and permanent mode of writing.