getting blogosophical...

Blogging has always seemed to be a bit of a strange concept to me, but I admit that I probably haven't paid all that much attention to it. For a long time I had a misconception of blogs, considering them to be limited to online diaries or journals, mostly used by sixteen year olds to cry about how much they hate their families/friends/lives to people they've never met, in the hope that another sixteen year old that hates their family/friends/life will validate their feelings and share their pain. Although I'm sure I could produce more than a few examples of these types of blogs I am slowly beginning to realise that blogging is a much more diverse practice, and there are plenty of interesting people out there writing about interesting topics.
Another reason for me not blogging or reading blogs is that I always tell myself that I don't really have the time, but I've recently asked myself - why books but not blogs? I have access to so many talented writers over the Internet, and the best part is I don't have to rely on a publisher to decide what is good for me.
My one attempt at blogging (up until now) resulted in two anonymous and very uninteresting posts that I wrote as a way of procrastination...I have since discovered the joys of social networking sites and these posts have thankfully been lost in cyber-space. In terms of blogging for class work- it is getting easier as I pretend more and more that absolutely nobody will read my posts.
I have a friend that has been a regular blogger for at least 5 years now and developed a "blogging circle" in which she now writes very personal entries which may only be read by a group of about 5 people that she does not know in an offline setting. She recently did meet one offline, though, and they see each other fairly regularly. To me this is a sort of backwards friendship- starting by sharing very personal thoughts and ideas, and progressing to occassionally hanging out together. Its odd but it seems to work for them- just another way in which the Internet is drastically changing our social practices.