The Best Blog Entry Ever!

Aren't you tired of the “Best of...” articles, blogs and websites that offer you the equivalent of a six-year-old’s “What's your favorite color?” question and answer? It seems counter-intuitive to go to a place that is so well suited to objectivity to get such subjective lists. Let's leave the “Sexiest Man Alive” contests to the tabloids where they belong, and focus on making the lives around us a little better each day.

I'm tired of the listings of “Best Restaurant”, and “Best New Car Under $450,000” sites. These subjective lists bring several questions to mind. Like, “Who cares?”, or, more to the point, “Why should I care what you think about 'X'?” The fact that someone voices an opinion is not sufficient to make them an expert. Often those who cry the loudest, know the least. (Or have a vested interest in the outcome.)

Have we become a nation of sheeple that needs direction from the all-seeing eye of the internet? And even if we have, where is the content on the almighty internet coming from? That's right, our fellow sheeple. Or have we become so self-absorbed that we believe that others cannot live happy, fulfilled lives without knowing our deepest thoughts on which is the best ketchup? (It's Heinz, by the way, in case you're wondering. You read this far, so I figured my opinion mattered to you, just a little.)

I'm pretty sure it's a little of each. The internet has managed to make us closer, with sites like Facebook and Skype allowing us real time communication all over the world, and yet we can hide behind our email boxes and never, really, have to come face to face with anyone. And the ultimate bully pulpit, the blog, allows all of us to vent our deepest, most cherished thoughts. For centuries people hid these things in their hearts and bedside diaries, and few if any people shared them. Somehow we discovered science and music and literature without the benefit of several billion people pouring out their souls to one another in instantaneous communion.

Which begs the question, given the current states of these endeavors, is it possible that a driving force behind such creativity is the formerly bottled up energy we now so freely spew out into cyberspace?