from SOHH to the world of academia

I'm in no way a pro at the blogging world. I've been reading blogs for longer than I've been writing on one; but what surprises me is how quickly this community of bloggers and readers has caught on. To be honest, I had no idea how long blogs had actually been around. A quick google search seems to show that blogs have been in exsistence from round 99 or so. Rebecca Blood, author and blogger has a great history on her site. I think that one of the reasons I enjoy blogging is because there is that chance that someone outside of the folks who know I blog, will actually read and respond to something I've written, so I'm forced to think about audience.

Blogs have grown in popularity, one of the non-acadmic blogs I love reading is Dooce which chronicles a mother raising her two year old. This blog is great, the writer is funny and honest, she's got archives that also date back to before she had a kid, so lots of folks can jive with her feelings and experiences on many levels. I just finished reading an article about her and others from the BBC website that talks about how the net changes our ways of creativity.

Well, what I'm wondering and thinking about is how the net has changed modes of communication for African-Americans to participate in rhetorical discourse. For so long our voices have been silenced in so many arenas, and because of socio-political reasons we have not always had the benefit of keeping up with new technologies, but as the net and pcs become more and more like a TV (one in most every house) is this changing how we participate in the world around us?

For example, I know of lots of young folks who participate in forums and discussion boards about music, but I can't also help but to think that some of these forums and boards also bleed over into other areas as well. SOHH for example, seems to have lots of places to discuss a broad range of issues. There have been lots of discussions about how race is viewed/is an issue in cyberspace. Not always because of what is presented on line, but because of who has access to the information, who can synthesize and respond, and who reads. USC had a conference dealing with some of these issues awhile back, they are asking some of the same questions.

I dunno, I'm interested in why some people dismiss the importance of being net savvy, and I'm really interested in how younger folks are gonna claim the net as a place to participate in the world around them. I just took a peek at one such converation over on SOHH concerning Oprah.

I think that BBC article has it right, the net and modes of communication and creativity are just gonna keep changing and thats what its all about. The problem I see is that because of socio-economic issues too many of us might be left behind.