Blogs and "Social Networking"

I first posted a blog a few years ago at the height of Blogmania. MySpace was probably around, but below my horizon - just about to appear in my rear view mirror. Facebook and Bebo were both things of the future.

Of course the press still periodically publish stories about popular blogs like "Belle de Jour" and "La Petite Anglaise", but usually once the blog is on the wane.

At the moment there's hardly a week goes by without news stories that mention one of the social networking sites.

The Social Networking sites are much more about the medium than the message. On the surface Blogs and Social Networking occupy a similar space. It's all about self publicity. The social networkers are saying "look at me, look at me, this is what I'm doing 24/7", whereas the bloggers are saying "I'm on a journey through life, stick around if you are interested".

So why a blog now? Funnily enough the initial trigger was an advert for a ticket re-seller which uses someone referiong to "MyFace" to illustrate their ignorance. Then I read in a newspaper about what had happened to ""Le Petite Anglaise" as a result of her blog.

Vast generalisation alert: Social Networking is about showing people everything. Blogging is about showing yourself what you want others to see. At the moment the latter suits me better.