Soap Blogera

I realize reality shows are the soaps for the new millenium, but aren't blogs, also? Who needs "All My Children" when we can tune in to our favorite blogs whenever the hell we want and live vicariously? The soap thing came to mind this morning as I was reading a couple of online journals and thought: wow, this is getting sort of complicated and messy and...um...juicy. And sometimes the comments are the best part. (Comments: the equivalent of talking back to the TV.)

And just like reality TV, the fascination of blogs and online journals is that they're real--or what the writer chooses to present as real. We don't care if it's factual or not--we just want to be entertained and moved and humored. And it's amazing what we'll put out there for the entire web to read. Often we write about things we wouldn't think of disclosing to our closest friends. Why? Why does it sometimes feel safer in the blogging community?

I don't know the answer. But I do know I plan to keep reading. It's going to be an interesting summer.