Blogging isn't creating community. Community is a natural phenomena that happens, it's not necessarily forced or created by a third party. Blogging software changes how community looks, not how it's created.
Community used to exist, and still does for many areas, in neighborhoods, churches, clubs and PTAs. Community was restricted by circumstance to a physical location. With the advent of the internet and social software, people are no longer bound to a single location as the source for community building. Blogging opens the door to a wide variety of interested people that otherwise could not participate in the conversation.
However, even with more people participating have we lost something in the transition? Have we foresaken our local personal communities for a world wide community that we may never really know? I don't know the answer.
The internet is a wealth of information but it's stripped of the emotion and context of the human condition. If community is now built within the confines of such a structure, what will we lose?
It could be argued that local communities don't have to be sacrificed to go global but look at the trend. America is already too busy for vacations and plugged in 24/7 while churches and social clubs are struggling to stay afloat. We hardly have enough time for ourselves, let alone the needs of a real-live community. We've chosen instead to connect, somewhat impersonally, to a community that doesn't ask too much of us.
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