A more connected planet.

These days it's not that unusual to write something about ourselves, somewhere, sometime. Ever since humans discovered how to read and write, we have been noting down our thoughts and views. But what of now, in the 21st century? Is everything about to change?

Personally, I think so. As we have seen in all areas of life, (particularly since the digitisation of much of the world)...things move fast. Very fast. Very soon, much of the population will be blogging, tweeting, updating and commenting much more than they ever have before. And, as we've seen in countries across the globe, even people who are under the tightest dictatorship can now tell the rest of the World the REAL story.

And I myself cannot wait for this revolution to truly take shape. Let me be clear; although I LOVED the x-files in my teens, (guilty pleasure #172) I am definitely no conspiracy theorist or anarchist, waiting for governments across the world to fall. Quite the opposite in fact. But, as we are increasingly seeing, people are speaking out online, in bogs, posts, tweets, video messages, status updates etc. News has become instant. Sure, it can encourage a terrible form of reporting sometimes from rolling news channels and web pages, but it's surely better than the 'good old days'. People can instantly tell the whole world their views, and it can take a lot of effort to silence someone who really wants to tell us their view. (Plus it can also make for amusing 'news events' where we can see rolling news on TV news channels of a persons house. Waiting for a door to open. Amazing.)
 

Which also made me think. As a personal diary keeper (and proud!), will I increasingly blog, tweet, update and comment, slowly forgetting to update my diary, as it grows increasingly old-school? Will I crave more and more instant news and feedback, and feel that my diary is out of touch? The answer is a resounding no. I like the thought of a diary. I can look back in years to come and I will have a physical record of my life...obviously not all of it...but quite a large part of it, both good and bad.
 

And unlike in the online world, I won't have felt the need to big myself up, or be politically correct or polite. My diary is personal and honest. And although I do love to write and update my facebook status on regular occasions, I'm not really one for tweeting or ranting to the world, trying to impose my own views upon others. I believe we're all equal and even if someone is a vile person who says things purely to start arguments, their right to free-speech is the same.

And that's what I love about the internet and diaries. Both enable us to be ourselves, if we so wish. And although 75% of the internet is just vacuous fluff, the other 25 is powerful stuff. And I'm personally looking forward to the future, where in an instant we, as a large group of people, can decide some things are wrong, say it, and the media and governments will sit up and listen. We're now seeing this across the World. With the increased openness the internet has brought, we are moving towards a more democratised internet, where people can truly affect change. And if we don't like it...well, there'll be a funny cat playing a piano somewhere to cheer us up!
 

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Auf Wiedersehen!