Ok Mark –

We could continue to counter examples if we wished. For all your positive examples of people’s experience of blogging, I could produce negative examples of people’s experience of blogging. You'd agree it isn't all one way.

I agree with you that the online communication experience has significant benefits to a whole bunch of isolated people in society. I agree that it brings people together and lets them share ideas and discover new ones. Are blogs and other forms of online communication dynamic and interesting? Yes.

Still, I will I continue to argue thought that blogging, or any screen based activity has changed the world of human relationships for the worse.

Why?

Because it doesn’t ask us to go down to that pub you mentioned and strike up a conversation, try and find a point of common interest - because we just don't have to put in the effort. Home entertainment means we spend less time in more communal environments. Blogging is a step back to engagement after television, video and surfing the net – and everyone is excited about it. But, it still seems to me to be regressive because it denies key aspects of being human.

This line of argument doesn’t fit well into the academic framework you are probably used to. Just like governments or other institutions the academy has its own set method of dialogue - one I am not altogether comfortable with or believe is accessible to a majority of the community.

But, what I am arguing about is the intangible nature of holding someones hand or touching their elbow. The power of non-verbal communication that can let you know the subtle nature of what someone is trying to say. Blogging doesn’t do that. Yes, it engages in the intellectual, but it can not engage in other ways. And most of us are more interested in the emotional, the spiritual and the sublime.

Perhaps we just have to agree to disagree. But really, my broader agenda is about strengthening offline communities, not dismantling online ones.

We may indeed, Daniel.

I'm not sure what you mean by the academic conventions I'm used to.

I'm also interested in building offline community - I just don't think that it's incompatible with online sociality.

Too many blogs spoil the melting pot. Editors needed?