conjectural navel gazing; jesus in lint form

I'm not sure how you mean "make a difference."

I began blogging to have a place to put my sermons out to receive feedback. A reality check, so to speak. After a while I became a part of an online community of people who are diverse in their beliefs and behaviors. I gain insight from them and am able to offer to them my own understanding of God's Kingdom. So, in this respect, blogging makes a difference in my life.

Whether blogging does any good for the world at large, I think that it does. It provides a forum for the expression of ideas and opinions. It allows debate on all kinds of issues and is instrumental in the formation of the opinions of those who participate. And it allows participation to many who otherwise would not be able to participate in the great debates of our society.

My answer to my understanding of your question is and unqualified "Yes".

Perhaps you might expand your thought on what it means to "make a difference."

Joel,

I am leaving what it means up to you. The article that suggests that it does not make a difference, that most of us are wasting our time, appears to think that the individual voice should have an impact. The other article, by focusing on an individual voice, suggests that there is a wider cultural shift at work because of the emerging blogging "subculture" or technology.

Articulating "making a difference" is part of the challenge, of course, but that there are differing ways to understand that is something I am interested in as well.

You say your blogging makes a difference because of the community you ave discovered. Some might say that you are wasting your time because no one from Night Line has called.

What do you think?

i think it can make a difference, but usually doesn't. most of us are wasting our time, just not all of us all the time.

blogging boosters tend to vastly over-inflate the blogisphere's capabilities and influence. but that doesn't mean it has no capability or no influence

Noz,

I think that we can overinflate the impact, but the combined influence of these conversations is perhaps immeasurable. Political opinion will be swayed. Information (reliable or not) is flying all over the place. At the very least we are finding new and powerful ways to question what we know and whom we trust.

It is an interesting cultural exercise.

I disagree that political influence will be swayed. People who blog and people who read blogs seem generally to have their political minds made up.

What leads you to believe political influence will be swayed?

I think that there are some bloggists who "have something to say" and are thus not interested in learning or further refining their ideas and opinions.

I have found the online debates have encouraged me to articulate my own thoughts more clearly. In the process of refining, I have discovered where my ideas have shifted over the years, not towing the Democratic line so much as I used too...nor "becoming more conservative."

This, I believe is due to the conversations we have had online. I hope that my voting will change as a result. Perhaps the internet conversations will encourage the growth of a viable third party.

It is not that I am influencing people, though it is possible. It is that I know that I have been influenced by these conversations.

Does blogging make a difference? Of course. Everything makes a difference. Making a difference doesn't mean nothing stays the same. That I blog makes a difference to my friends, who would otherwise rarely get even a mass email because I'm a terrible correspondent. It makes a difference in how I spend my time, because I spend more time reading and posting than I would if I didn't blog. Whether it makes a difference is a separate question from whether it will end democracy as we know it.

Megan, I'm curious about your assertion that "people who blog and people who read blogs seem generally to have their minds made up" and therefore they will not be swayed. It's my experience that most people in any sector of US culture hold pretty firmly to their political beliefs. Yet, people's minds DO get changed, or we wouldn't have elections that depend on last-minute swing votes, formerly homophobic people joining PFLAG, etc. A lot of that mind-changing happens through conversations that stand within a fuller relationship, whether online or off, and I think blogging does play a role in developing those kinds of relationships. Not for everyone, certainly, but for many.

Megan,

I would make a slight correction on what you say.

"People who blog and people who read blogs seem generally to have their political minds made up."

People who blog may be expressing an opinion, but I'm not convinced their mind is totally made up. And as to their readers, we only know of the ones who respond. I suspect that the vast majority of readers do not respond, they read, digest and move on.

Joel, that's not a correction, it's a legitimate disagreement. I observe and believe one thing; you observe and believe another. But neither of us is in a position to correct the other.

Beth, I said "seem generally." My observation is that the blogosphere is home to lots of people who have their political opinions pretty well worked out, some based on information and research, some based on gut instincts.

I don't think that blogging affects the swing votes you refer to. I don't think those folks are reading blogs, or blogging themselves. Of course, I could be wrong.

Someone made the comment to me that blogging is an introvert's medium - a way to have a dialogue without expending energy on face to face interaction. I found that to be an interesting perspective. As a borderline extrovert, I have never quite understood why bloggers are so confident that anyone would be interested in their opinion. I certainly have felt that way about myself - why would anyone care whether I think the war is wrong? What new thing do I have to bring to the dialogue? But when I consider this as the most comfortable way for one to put a thoughtful opinion out there as a pure expression, it makes more sense. For me, I need to know that there is an audience, but for many, that may not be part of their process.

So it may not matter whether blogging makes a difference to the reader. If it makes a difference to the writer, that ought to be enough.

Well said, Rich.

As a performer, I struggle with my own selfishness about music. I play because I like to. I perform because I feel some odd obligation to express myself musically. I do not enjoy performing. I enjoy being musical with people. Listening to music is one way to be musical.

The same can be said for why I blog. I am, to some degree, simply trying to stay in touch with friends. I post what I want to share with them. Every so often, I will chime in on a political debate. But it is not my forte. I have opinions, but debating them out is less enjoyable. Reading the debates that others are having helps me.

Some days I listen.
Some days I play.

If blogging matters, it matters because it provides a forum for such interaction without the limitations of geography...and even time to some degree.