My co-worker just sent me a link to an article talking about a book by a U of C professor.

Michael Keren, who has written “Blogosphere: The New Political Arena,” suggests individuals who bare their souls in blogs are isolated and lonely, living in a virtual reality instead of forming real relationships or helping to change the world.

“Bloggers think of themselves as rebels against mainstream society, but that rebellion is mostly confined to cyberspace, which makes blogging as melancholic and illusionary as Don Quixote tilting at windmills,” the author says.

I could start ranting, but seriously what’s the point? We all know why each of us blog, we all have our reasons. Be it personal, informative, geeky, literary, or just for the sake of tapping your fingers on a keyboard and publishing the result for the world to see.

I must admit though, I’m not completely transparent on my blog, I don’t go into details if I’ve had a bad day (except maybe when it has to do with a certain Credit Union) but that’s just me. That could say something about me, I could read into it, but… meh, I don’t really want to.

Keren praises the Internet as a great place for self-expression, but he also suggests that blogs often have the opposite effect by creating feelings of loneliness for those who aren’t lucky enough to reach “celebrity” status.

There are some people out there who are blogging to get recognized, but I’m sure there’s an equal amount of people who do it just to say something, share, and to have an outlet regardless of Technorati ranking or ‘blogebrity’ status.

For all we know this dude could be writing a book just to create a buzz. Maybe he knows if people blog about it he’s succeeded, whether it’s created a positive or negative review. Who knows, maybe we’ll all get the book and read it and it’ll become an Amazon best seller (regardless if its better purpose is that of a paperweight or not). Will he be upset if it doesn’t become popular?

We’re all entitled to our opinions, and I suppose this author is as well. Only thing is, I think he’ll just make more money off his, than I will mine.