From Jenny.
Blog is still down because the CWRL server is still down. This blows. But I found a wonderful story on high school bloggers in today's New York Times. The story could easily become very dimissive of high school blogging as a trend, a high tech diary, etc. But Nussbaum does a nice job of treating blogging with an awful lot of tenderness. Made me think about the emotional investments of a blog. There's a lot to be said about this. Not just because blogs are "personal" (often they're not), but just because it's an investment in making connections. It's a gesture of public intimacy. The experiences of being blog-less for the past few days has affected me in strange emotional ways. I feel like I actually got "cut off" from people. Why? Just because I know they can't "read" me. It's a cutting-off of involvement and intimacy. I found this part of the NYT story especially nice:
So much high-school pain comes from the sense of being alone with one's stupid, self-destructive impulses. With so many teenagers baring their vulnerabilities, there is the potential for breaking down isolation. A kind of online Breakfast Club, perhaps, in which a little surfing turns up the insecurity that lurks in all of us.
I don't even think you need to qualify this in terms of "high school." So much pain comes from the sense of being alone with one's stupid, self-destructive impulses. This line could be my life. And the blog as an online Breakfast Club. Very nice. I guess that makes me the weird girl in the back of the room.
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