In this episode, Jo looks at the power of story, why she got into the blogging arena, what she has learned over the past year and the life changing effects that engaging in online communities can have. This program has been rated “L” for “Long” — but worth it.
Blogs are my reality shows.
I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.
I don’t read to observe a train wreck. I read to feel more human and connected to amazing people who inspire and inform and mostly, like great satiric writers, comics and even the jesters of yore, make us laugh at the truth of life.
Blogs give us little slices of life that make us understand, appreciate and know another part of the world and another person.
Like reality tv, blogs throw the doors wide open on someone else’s life — or at least it seems wide open. We know that part of it is persona and a great deal is crafted carefully: dramatized and parsed down to the essential bits to make it more entertaining and have more impact. But it doesn’t remain any less true.
I saw a Ken Burns piece the other day on brainpickings where he says his stories are manipulations at the same time that they are true. We love stories that make us feel. We love stories of transformation. We crave these stories.
In the supposed source for the quotation he is actually talking about wine (his drink of choice). Now, this is Internet research so who knows, maybe at some point he did say something similar about beer.
That probably isn’t a very good tagline or article title. Cheeky and cute if attempting “ironical” but not so much if true.
