The World Wide Web

So, yet again I'm here reporting on more trivial happenings in my pathetic life.
I think I'll make this post public, because I know there are lots of people out there who want to read this pulp ;)

You know, I wonder, does all the pop-lit and blogging going online do anything to cheapen literature overall? Or just democratize it?

There is so much out there, it's like everyone is an amateur author, amateur journalist, amateur poet, whatever. So what does that make "professional" writing? Is there such a thing? And if so, what puts it on a different level than all the other pulp? I'm starting to think that a lot of these pro-authors who get published in "real" rags or on popular websites are not anything special. At least not intrinsically so. I tend to think all the bloggers and self-publishers are equalizing the playing field; democratizing the written word.

I'm a bit behind the times, because most people will say, "duh, that's common knowledge", but I think the internet has really revolutionized to much in our world. In so many areas. I think the great demarcation in history will turn out to the start of the digital/computer age. And you can place it, really, right around the turn of the century. Or five years, before, perhaps. It's interesting that this has happened at the turn of a millenium. Such a grand kind of mark. But I truly believe that in the world of ideas; the exchange of ideas, that the internet is revolutionary.
The realm of philosophy and politics is now available to the masses, instead of the enlightened few who subscribe to the Economist, and have graduated college, or whatever. You get an internet connection, you have Lexis-Nexis at your fingertips.

Voila.

So these are just some thoughts.