As the name implies -- Eye Contact might seem irony-soaked, but irony is a useful survival tool. Eye contact signifies that person-to-person interaction that seems to have diminished in our more impersonal, digital age. This is a Blog that will attempt to be part sounding-board, part examination of the larger picture of events, issues, human folly etc. , and of course, part journal. I ask myself why I have taken the trouble to start up a Blog presence on the web when arguably, it means entering into a vast, chattering community of Net "citizens" staking out their nook amongst the din of the multitudes. What kind of vanity exercise is this ultimately? What's it's utility? Or is that a perhaps naive or at least redundant question in a cultural realm littered with the apocalyptic, the trivial, the narcissistic and the idiotic. Worse yet, this whole exercise of Blogging could be construed as simply another form of self-amusement. The internet has facilitated the private sphere's bleeding into the public sphere to such an extent that everywhere we turn now, we are captive to the private lives of celebrity and non-celebrity alike. Instinctively, I feel that we're not better off with this knowledge, which just serves as so much more distraction. Now anyone with access to the technology and a desire to have their life witnessed, can share the intimate details of their quotidian existence to an anonymous viewer. We're all participating in taking turns as the voyeur in our voyeuristic culture. I'm fascinated with this process and the power of the Internet and I spend perhaps more time than I'd like to, surfing the Net, writing emails, scanning and sending off my cartoons and illustrations etc. Why a Blog? It's a good question. I'm already a dedicated journal-keeper and I know that I'll never give up the tactile experience of writing in a book with a pen. A blog, however, I'd like to think, is different. It's an opportunity for me to become more expansive. To scream into the void as it were, to disseminate and offload my thoughts that need a wider forum and that can be reflected back to me. This is what I hope to get out of the Blogging world. But who knows, maybe I'll be tempted to end up posting my grocery list -- after all, anything goes now.
1 comment:
As the name implies -- Eye Contact might seem irony-soaked, but irony is a useful survival tool. Eye contact signifies that person-to-person interaction that seems to have diminished in our more impersonal, digital age. This is a Blog that will attempt to be part sounding-board, part examination of the larger picture of events, issues, human folly etc. , and of course, part journal. I ask myself why I have taken the trouble to start up a Blog presence on the web when arguably, it means entering into a vast, chattering community of Net "citizens" staking out their nook amongst the din of the multitudes. What kind of vanity exercise is this ultimately? What's it's utility? Or is that a perhaps naive or at least redundant question in a cultural realm littered with the apocalyptic, the trivial, the narcissistic and the idiotic. Worse yet, this whole exercise of Blogging could be construed as simply another form of self-amusement. The internet has facilitated the private sphere's bleeding into the public sphere to such an extent that everywhere we turn now, we are captive to the private lives of celebrity and non-celebrity alike. Instinctively, I feel that we're not better off with this knowledge, which just serves as so much more distraction. Now anyone with access to the technology and a desire to have their life witnessed, can share the intimate details of their quotidian existence to an anonymous viewer. We're all participating in taking turns as the voyeur in our voyeuristic culture. I'm fascinated with this process and the power of the Internet and I spend perhaps more time than I'd like to, surfing the Net, writing emails, scanning and sending off my cartoons and illustrations etc. Why a Blog? It's a good question. I'm already a dedicated journal-keeper and I know that I'll never give up the tactile experience of writing in a book with a pen. A blog, however, I'd like to think, is different. It's an opportunity for me to become more expansive. To scream into the void as it were, to disseminate and offload my thoughts that need a wider forum and that can be reflected back to me. This is what I hope to get out of the Blogging world. But who knows, maybe I'll be tempted to end up posting my grocery list -- after all, anything goes now.
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