One Wonders.

From Wikipedia:

'As of 16 February 2011, there were over 156 million public blogs in existence.'

It is hard for me to imagine what 156 million actually looks like. The magnitude of the number does register, it seems 'big', but the physical reality seems vague and the mind begs to seek a visual reference. And yet, the numerical is proof enough somehow - 156 million is a lot of blogs.

What does a hundred and fifty-six million blogs mean?

It definitely means a lot of information - what sort of information is perhaps a rhetoric question; I doubt if it can be categorised at all. 

It means the need to express, the need to communicate, to share, to reach out. 

Arbitrarily assigning one soul per blog, 156 million people have a lot to say, assuming also that their blogs are active. But hasn't the need to communicate always been there? People have been known to keep diaries and journals - to catalogue their thoughts and to contain 

their emotions. Then why the need to 'publish' online? Perhaps the vague hope to attract an audience, to elicit response(s)?

It also means access to internet - that a lot of people still don't have. 

Perhaps most of the blogs are merely a form of catharsis; perhaps they do not have the need or potential to reach out and appeal to a greater audience. I wonder about the ones that can. Somehow, the print media is still more accessible than the digital. Do these blogs limit their authors? To be satisfied with virtual publishing and not pushing for a greater goal? Or does it polish their abilities?

I wonder whether the dream of becoming an author dies slowly. 

I also wonder about the ones who do not have internet access. It bothers me - this unfair digital divide. I wonder how many potential bloggers make up the numbers of the non-digital-world. I wonder how many authors stay buried in those not-yet-bloggers. 

I wonder about the people who have a lot [and more] to say, the need to reach out - and do not. I wonder if we are evolving into a species with less and even lesser time for each other - so less that more and more people will prefer virtual communications to real ones. Is it not strange that we spend more time staring into virtual windows to the digital world than the real windows to gaze out? 

I wonder if the 156 million blogs herald a sort of loneliness, the one that can be experienced in a crowd, say of 7000 million or so.