Blogging as communication revolution

OK, I know this isn't an original insight, but the rise of blogging really does appear to have the power to change the landscape of personal relationships, at least at the meet and greet point and possibly beyond.

I know this because I recently met several people with blogs, in addition to applying for the INdTV job. Their site also features a blog, which according to an October 3rd story in the New York Times is becoming more and more common for businesses as a window into the employee environment for potential hires. This relatively recent development means we can get more, sometimes copious amounts of, information on people we don't know socially to any real degree. This has the potential to be a good thing when it comes to dating and jobs, but also to be a limiting factor in the types of people we talk to.

You may be familiar with the phenomenon called "cocooning". It basically means you surround yourself only with opinions and values similar to your own and tune out anything else. While checking out someone's blog may give us an idea as to their mental health, or ability to think coherently, or opinion on drug policy, it's not necessarily an accurate portrait of what they're really like in person. If you make a habit of dismissing out of hand anyone whose view of abortion isn't in line with your own, or anyone of the opposite political party, it's possible you're shutting yourself off from any arguments that challenge you're own beliefs, and that's not only dangerous, but also leaves you with a lot fewer possible relationships. This is not to say that people with like interests shouldn't pursue them together, just that challenging someone else's beliefs and opinions can be a very effective way of determining and analyzing your own.

And besides, some people may only write when they're down, or when they're lonely. Reading a blog of this type wouldn't give you much of a reason to want to get to know the person, when in reality s/he could be fun and interesting around other people. This could be why so many blogs continue to be anonymous (like this one). The face we present to the world here is accessible to anyone, so we need the comfort of anonymity to be able to express ourselves without reservation. Perhaps paradoxically, we may encourage our friends and family to visit it, where we either expose them to sides of ourselves they don't typically see or self-censor anyway, defeating the purpose of being anonymous. I wonder how many people maintain multiple blogs to get around this - one to keep in touch with others, another just for themselves. Any thoughts?