Blogging and the Memory Preservation Society

The key to popularity in our digital world is being in the know. Whoever has information first is revered and re-tweeted; they are the thought leaders turned newsmakers and armchair analysts.

Being in the know is better than being in the known. This latter state of perspective and history, however informative to current events, is pushed aside by the rush of now. Keeping up is considered the same as keeping informed. We used to stand still as the Earth spun on its axis – now we turn with it and simply try to keep from falling off.

This is why blogging matters. In the early days – before the “social media” we’re familiar with today – blogging was the engine of personal publicity. Stories broke on blogs, getting a “trackback” was the re-tweet of the age and being on a popular Blogroll was better than any Klout score.

Now, with those early winds at our backs, those same posts are both past and prologue. Blog posts are the mad rush of sociological change frozen in silicon – blogs comprise the Library of Conscience for the early 21st Century.

Twitter, Facebook, forums, chats, life streams – they are all important and necessary and, for better or worse, it’s all part of our society’s DNA.

But we need bloggers too. They are the Memory Preservation Society, “journalists” in the truest form of that idiom.

Blogs are our memories. And bloggers, those who still take the time to give context to chaos, are the caretakers of our instant history.