When starting Rettberg’s book about blogging I could not help but be bored and unimpressed with the descriptions of what a blog is and what the different types of blogs are.  Then came the very long description of the history of the printed word.  Once again I was pretty bored.  Then I had the realization that this shift from printed word to online text is a very significant one.  Looking back at the history of the printed word made me think of the significance that it might be on its way out.  I also realized that the reason I was so bored with the first chapter about blogging is because I am more or less fluent in the language of blogging.  This is not something that has always been the case.

I started to think about children growing up today who are learning how to blog, video post, listen to podcasts etc. at a time when I was simply learning how to read and write with good grammar.  It dawned on me that we really are in a different generation where the word “literacy” means and entirely different thing.  I understand that this realization is kind of a ‘DUH!’ realization but nonetheless it blew (a small part of) my mind to think about it.

This was the most interesting takeaway I got from Rettberg’s first two chapters, although it did make me feel kind of old and uncool that I had to read a description of what blogging is and how it works instead of being fully immersed in the cool new culture of already being completely literate in the language of online writing.