"Online Disc Jockey"

Everything about our culture today is becoming immediate and increasingly fast-paced. We become impatient after waiting 3 minutes for a meal at fast-food restaurant, when it could take up to an hour to make a hamburger and French fries at home. People used to have to sail on ships for weeks to get to places that we can now hop on a plane and fly to within hours. Our society today seems to just need everything to be available instantaneously. This relates to the main reason Andrew Sullivan states that he blogs: it fits in with our need for immediacy. He says, “For bloggers, the deadline is always now.” Sullivan seems to be drawn to the ability to post about things as they are happening. For example, he says that he shared the experience of the attack on the World Trade Centers on September 11th and his reaction to it as it happened, through his blog. (“There is a vividness to this immediacy that cannot be rivaled by print.”)
Another aspect of blogging that has appealed to Sullivan is the intimacy of blogs. “You feel as if you know bloggers as they go through their lives, experience the same things you are experiencing, and share the moment.” Blogging is so current that it creates this personal feeling, as if discussing reactions to things happening as they happen with a friend, like a sports commentator, watching the situation and taking it all in, while discussing what is happening in the moment. Sullivan says that the writer and reader create an “intimate bond” because it’s two people alone at a computer: connected by the sharing of thoughts, news, or ideas.
One of my favorite statements that Sullivan made was “There are times, in fact, when a blogger feels less like a writer than an online disc jockey, mixing samples of tunes and generating new melodies through mashups while also making his own music. He is both artist and producer—and the beat always goes on.” I think this is a great expression of how he views blogging, as well as a very creative, unique comparison.
So why does Andrew Sullivan blog? To put it briefly, I gathered from his article “Why I Blog” that the answer to this is because he enjoys the combination of immediacy, intimacy, and creativity allowed by blogging. Blogging is unique in that no other form of writing seems to be able to offer this combination of defining aspects and advantages.