Reuters - U.S. soldier "bloggers" report from war zone

U.S. soldier “bloggers” report from war zone - Story out of Reuters in London talking about military bloggers. Some are still managing to stay in contact with family and friends in this way. Isn’t it amazing how technology makes the world a bit smaller? I’ve been reading about blogs coming out of Iraq and all over the mideast, many of them breaking stories before the media… CNN even stopped one of it’s reporters, Kevin Sites, from keeping his blog current online while he’s there on the job.

I’m not sure how I feel about that. On the one hand, he’s there to do his job, not build his website. On the other hand, CNN doesn’t own him 24/7 and he should be free to do as he likes at least -some- of the time. He is, after all, in a war zone, and risking his life every minute he is there, to do his job.

I think blogging goes far beyond simply reporting events in a person’s life, or the news and reactions to it. It can be a very personal thing, written in a conversational tone, telling about very personal feelings and thoughts… a glimpse into another person’s mind, often filled with reflections about the past that shaped who and what they are today. It can also reflect what people think is wrong in the world and what they think needs to be changed. Blogging simply helps automate that process. It’s the high tech version of a paper journal, and those have been kept for as long as written language has been around… but it allows that writing to be shared with whoever is willing to read it. That’s the real difference, I think. In the past, we kept all these thoughts and our diaries to ourselves, as secrets. Today, things are much more open, people are more willing to communicate in this way.

Personally, I’ve always found it easier to write what I wanted to say than verbalize it aloud. For me, it’s been a sense of innate shyness in most cases. The computer allows me some measure of anonymity and I am less self-conscious about expressing my thoughts through the written word.