Andrew Sullivan's "Why I Blog"

After reading Andrew Sullivan's "Why I Blog," I have come to a better understanding as to why it is that people over the past decade or so have increasingly chosen to partake in blogging. While scholarly journals and newspapers and columns are subject to multiple layers of revisions and edits, blogging is instant and stream of consciousness. Because of the immediate nature of blogging and the ability to blog multiple times a day all while receiving criticism and feedback, Sullivan refers to blogging as "the least veiled of any forum in which a writer dares to himself." What I understand to be Sullivan's purpose for blogging is just this; blogging provides camaraderie between the writer and the reader, interaction that does not otherwise exist in other forms of published writing. Blogging is a method of holding personal conversations with people across the globe. The reactionary nature of many blog posts allows for the inclusion of emotion and opinion in writing that would be filtered out by editors. Sullivan speaks of such posts in his recollection of 9/11, when him and his blog followers spoke of the events occurring in real time. For Sullivan, blogging is the future of journalism. More people are given the opportunity to voice opinions and point of views on virtually any subject matter.