A Place Where Everybody Knows Your Name ... Sort Of

Making your way in the world today takes everything you've got, and taking a break from all your worries sure would help a lot. That's why a group of friends gather every day here. They enjoy each other's company. They share their stories, LOL (laugh out loud), commiserate with each other about life's challenges, and support one another when it all just gets too overwhelming. People, from all corners of the globe, come in and out of this place on a regular basis. They all come to this place that doesn't even really exist.

It's called the blogosphere.

A Place Like No Other

For those of us blog on a daily basis, we often forget than there are a lot of people who still don't know what the blogosphere is or what it is about. Wikipedia defines the blogosphere as a term that encompasses all blogs and their interconnections. More people are entering this virtual place everyday. The Blog Herald states that Technorati was tracking over 112.8 million blogs, and some estimates show that the total number of blogs doubles every six months.

It's a place where you can freely express your opinions, ideas, and thoughts to the virtual world and no one will boo or hiss in your face. No one will tell you that you're stupid, and if they do, you can just ban them from your blog. More likely, you will find the blogosphere to be quite welcoming and supportive. Basically, the blogosphere is the virtual place that connects bloggers in a community, or social network. It is the modern-day corner barber shop, coffee house, or Cheers bar.

A Place Where Everybody Kind of Knows Your Name

In the blogosphere, you can be whoever you want to be-which is both good and bad. Good because there is a certain amount of anonymity. You can use your real name or you can use a made-up name so you don't exact know who the blogger is sometimes, OMG (Oh, my God). You might know a little bit about their life: where they live, work, and their interests. Anonymous Boxer, from Seattle, WA, is a female blogger who owns her own business, has a little Chihuahua named Poco, and boxes to keep her sanity in tact. Then there are bloggers who come up with a gimmick, like Olga the Traveling Bra. Olga travels around the globe documenting her escapades and gets most visitors to ROTFL (roll on the floor laughing) with her hilarious hijinx.

Being whoever you want to be can also be bad. You've got to continue to deliver on whatever you write or you will loose visitors. Sometimes it's just hard to be creative every day. Sometimes you feel like you can't even CAS (crack a smile). Gig sometimes feels that blogging is way too much to keep up with.

Some bloggers are very transparent. You know their real name and a lot about them. But the one thing about bloggers is they rarely fit into society's stereo-types. They have a wide range of interests, beliefs, opinions, or political views-basically, as wide a range as human beings can get. There's Leah, from New York, who is a stay at home Mom working on her criminal justice dissertation, loves knitting, and lusts for Alan Rickman. Kylie, from Australia, who is deeply spiritual but also loves the Goth look. Cece from Arkansas, who is a Microbiologist and rocks out to loud heavy metal music, and is addicted to sausage. There's Just Bob from California, who has a dry sense of humor, a passion for politics, would rather be golfing rather than working, and loves spicy food. Marnie, a Mother of two from Florida, who works as for the government, is fascinated with everything from the movies The Highlander, and dreams of becoming a ninja one day. Zack, also from California, who works on heavy machinery, loves four letter words, and cares deeply about the forgotten ones in society. There's Suzanne from Northern California, a talented artist who spends her free time caring for animals and pets that are abandoned but also knows how to laugh at the absurdity of life.

A Place Where People Are All The Same

Bloggers, although diverse, tend to be open, honest, and passionate about whatever it is they write about. Some bloggers chronicle their experiences, like Robyn, from Sacramento, who found out that she had thyroid cancer and had to undergo chemotherapy, but she kicked cancer's butt and is in remission. WTGR (way to go, Robyn). Zmanowner started to blog in 2007 when he was diagnosed with Soft cell Sarcoma and says "it became very theraputic to talk about my life and how cancer affected it."

Bottomline is bloggers are people. People who want to express themselves-and be heard. People who are hurting, angry, or frustrated. People who want to connect to other people going through the same crap they are and who lived to tell about it. Bloggers share heartaches and hopes, and it doesn't really matter that you've never met the group of people you call your blogging buddies because they accept you just as you are: man, woman, Mother, Father, married, divorced, working, not working, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim, Jew, atheist...whatever.

A Place Where You Can Get Away

Just like that bar you can saddle up to and spill your guts, the blogosphere offers bloggers that same sense of openness and belonging. Only with blogging, you can siphon off your mental steam in your P.J.s at 2:00 a.m. eating Coco Puffs and hear back from someone in Taiwan who feels the same way. CatScratch Diva says she blogs to vent, poke fun at stupidity, and let it all out.

Though the blogosphere is not perfect. There are drawbacks. You occasionally run into idiots who leave lame comments on your blog or who try to prove they are better than you. Again, banning them is always a good idea. You may also regret what you've posted, like something about your BFF (best friend forever) that she gets really mad at because she told you not to tell anyone but you thought it was so hilarious you just had to put it on your blog.

Blogging can also be a huge time suck but, the rewards are sometimes worth "wasted" time. Meagan, from California, used to keep a journal as a child and blogging gives her the same satisfaction but "with pictures, video, and all the other doohickeys" the Web offers. Donn, from Canada, says the best thing about blogging is the people and "the opportunity to publish your own little cyberzine." CSI Seattle says, "Blogging is like chocolate; it provides instant gratification with lingering pleasure."

Other bloggers like Dijea, WhatIGotSoFar, MeadowLark, Gig, and AwakeinRochester say they do it because it gives them an outlet and they don't feel so alone in this insane world. This blogger sure is glad there's one place in the world where everybody sort of knows my name, and they're always glad I came. I'm glad there's a place where everybody knows my name-sort of.