Go Forth And Multiply . . . Bloggers, You Are Not Alone

The Age

Saturday March 15, 2008

Peter Kenneally - Peter Kenneally is a Melbourne blogger and poet

The image of bloggers as sad, lonely and friendless fails to reflect the complex, and very social, reality.

A FEW weeks ago I received an email from an old school friend I had not heard from or had any news of for 30 years or so. He had Googled himself and come across a biographical miniature I had written about him on my blog:

"He had glasses, a leather satchel, a bearish face and a soft leaning way of walking and being. Was it Ukrainian? They lived in a tower block in Kingston; the water in the toilet quivered in the breeze, there was ham with a pineapple ring and a cherry in the middle, and coffee in a bottle. Was it Camp essence? Yes, it was Camp essence."

He was pleased to be remembered, as was I. He remembered coming to my house, where my dad made him beans on toast and I played him Cherry Red by the Groundhogs, and my brother's copy of Sgt. Pepper's, which he thought was overrated.

All of which I had quite forgotten and would never have had the pleasure of recalling if I had not had a blog.

There is a popular perception of bloggers as sad, lonely and friendless - and there may be some truth in this. But as a recent study by Swinburne researchers shows, the reality is far more complex. The researchers interviewed 134 new MySpace users, who were asked about their intent to blog and about "several psycho-social variables". The study found that those who were intending to start a blog were indeed more depressed and anxious and had fewer friends than those who were not. They were also "significantly more discontented with their number of online and face-to-face friends." (They may also have been significantly more inclined to Google themselves.)

I started a blog in February 2006 - I would have qualified for the above group quite easily - and I started to post my thoughts and humorous asides about family, neighbourhood politics and life in general. Nothing happened: the stat counter stayed mockingly on zero, and there were no comments, except for some guy in Chile trying to sell T-shirts. And nothing would have happened: nothing ever does, by itself.

But that is the striking thing about blogging. Despite appearances, bloggers are not alone. True, on one level, a blog is simply an online journal, and as such fulfils some of the functions of an old-fashioned diary (journal writing has been widely researched and shown to improve physical and mental wellbeing). However, blogging - unlike diarising - is a social activity: that's what you sign on for. And if you put in the effort, that's what you get.

On her 95th birthday, Maria Amelia Lopez was given a blog (amis95.blogspot.com.) by her grandson, who, she was quick to point out in her first post, was "very stingy". As she said in a recent post: "You have to live life, not sit around in an armchair waiting for death." And she has proved it, by becoming a net celebrity with more than 1 million hits on her blog.

Blogging involves the same degree of extension, risk and revelation as any other social activity. It is only as you reach out to read and comment on other people's blogs, and they read and comment on yours, and you on the other people who you see on theirs, and so on, that the social nature of blogging announces itself. As the researchers say: "Feedback can serve as an acknowledgment of the author's cognitions, emotions, and sense of self."

Because blogging is social, it helps to have something to say: and it's not just how much you say, it's also how well you say it. The better you write, the more of a response you'll get. My small corner of the blogosphere tends to attract people who like to read and to write, so there is a mutual exchange of attention and feedback. It is organic and subtle, and with none of the horrors of a real-life writing workshop.

Whatever your leanings you may find after a while a small, close-knit group who regularly read and converse about what is written, and about their lives, and who offer encouragement, comfort, respect and understanding - in other words, friends.

It might seem odd to describe people you have never met or seen, and whose names you generally don't know (my alias is Betty Slocombe), as friends: there simply isn't another word for them.

Or there may be a larger group, or groups, which you connect with, who drop in and out, bantering, arguing, informing, even insulting. In other words, a social circle. A social circle that can extend far beyond the usual, so that, for instance, I now have correspondents in Canada, Scotland, the US and New Zealand.

It sometimes reminds me of comedian Tony Hancock in his Radio Ham sketch: "What a marvellous invention: I don't know where I'd be without it. I think I'd go crackers. It's opened up completely new horizons to me. Look at this - friends from all over the world. None in this country - but all over the world."

Sometimes I feel like Tony, especially if I read something like: "Individuals who bare their souls in blogs are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world." This is the considered opinion of Michael Keren, professor and Canada research chair in communication, culture and civil society at Calgary University, in his book Blogosphere: The New Political Arena.

But despite such lofty generalising, the blogosphere isn't a mildewy bedsit. It is impossible to know how many bloggers are out there, but by last Christmas, blog search engine Technorati was reportedly tracking more than 112 million blogs. Can they all be pathetic solipsists?

Blogging can be politically meaningful: the Chinese Government obviously thinks so. And on a personal level it is not only real and connective, but liberating. It can offer a social circle in which nobody has to be bothered about your appearance, income, accent or any of the other attachments we armour ourselves with. It can be as deep and soulful or as airy and insubstantial as you want or need it to be. And so can you.

A follow-up study of 59 of the original Swinburne group found that those who took up blogging were happier than before with their friendships, on and off line; and happier with them than the other (and, surprisingly, rather smaller) group of people who hadn't felt any need to blog.

Tonight is Saturday night. A perfect night to stay in. You might run into a friend from 30 years ago, or make a new one. Just sit quietly in your room and go out into the world.

Peter Kenneally is a Melbourne blogger and poet.