Blogging. In recent years, this term has come to light and become a part of the mainstream thanks to news reports and the rapidly extending reaches of the internet. What is it? It, broken into its component parts, is simply "web logging" or, an online diary.
Diaries are no longer those small secret books that you stash under your mattress, and then threaten to break all your brother's G.I. Joe's for reading. They are online things, available for almost anyone to read. Or no one. It all depends on how much you feel like sharing with the world at large.
One of the most famous is, of course, MySpace. MySpace is a notorious name, due to news events that have brought to light a darker side of the internet. However, they aren't the only ones. Oh no! There are quite a few more. In fact, if you've done any web surfing at all, you probably stumbled across one, even if you didn't realize what it was. LiveJournal (also called LJ), GreatestJournal (GJ), Xanga and BlogSpot are, along with MySpace, some of the biggest ones. But there are even more. InsaneJournal, JournalFen, the list goes on and on and on.
They are all a part of something called "open source code." Meaning that anyone, anyone at all, can get their base code, take it, and start up their own blogging sites. I know that that is JournalFen was created, as well as GreatestJournal.
Now, these "blogs" are customizable. Everything from a background image, to something called a "mood theme", literally a small representation of "how you're feeling", to what font you use can be changed. And they can be changed as often as the "blogger", the writer, chooses. Some are eye-searingly bad. Some are works of art in themselves. Some people even offer "style creation services." Meaning they will create a background, mood theme, font colour, and header image, according to what the asker wants. Now, this usually goes hand in hand with an exchange of some sort, but never involves money.
Seems a bit harmless doesn't it? People, sharing their thoughts, hopes, dreams, and fears, across pixelated pieces of text around the world. It'll bring the world closer as a whole.
For some this is true. Support groups for everything from eating disorder recovery, to child abuse recovery, to gambling addiction range far and wide across the internet in many, many different languages. There are tips on surviving divorce, or on how to get out from under credit card debt, or even on how to live "greener" without all the chemicals, and pollutants so prevalent in our world today.
And blogging sites make it possible for all these different kinds of people to get together from all the corners of the globe, without leaving their living rooms, commiserate with each other and then move on. All with the anonymity of a fake name, and an icon, a small picture used to represent the user.
Of course, there is a darker side. Paedophiles, rapists, and even worse sometimes stalk these sites looking for their next victims. They are, regrettably, a part of our worldwide society. There are procedures in place to protect minors and others from them, but there are cracks through which they can fall.
There is, however, one other group that needs an introduction, because, again with the help of the internet and these blogging sites, they have found each other, across oceans, and trade fictional stories, photos, icons, art, and thoughts on every single aspect of books, comics, television, movies, and more.
They are, collectively, fandom.
"Fandom" is the only word that can describe any of them. There are artists, writers, icon makers, analysts and more. They take characters from any type of media and draw pictures of them, write stories about them, and dissect the "canon", the original work, by the original author, from every point of view.
You want to read about Sirius Black and Remus Lupin (from Harry Potter) or Legolas and Gimli (from The Lord of the Rings) having more than just a close friendship? Someone (many someones) has written it, or drawn it, or used selected pieces of text from the books to support the theory.
Your favourite anime has ended without a satisfactory ending? Write it yourself! Or, find someone who shares your love of the series, and has written their own version.
Think about it. An entire section of society that reads, and watches the same sort of things that everyone does, and then takes it and extrapolates it further. These are mothers, teachers, lawyers. They come from every single walk of life, and in a variety of age ranges. Some of them still remember the days of underground "fanzines" (magazines written by fans) for Star Trek: The Original Series. They remember the days when it was hard to do all the things that fandom does now and takes for granted.
