"So it should hardly be surprising if the digital world isn't all neat and tidy. We are just at the beginning of figuring it all out. We have a new technology base, a new kind of material, which itself is still evolving. And we are just beginning to figure out what kinds of creatures to make from this material: what they'll look like, how they'll behave, what kinds of tasks we'll ask them to perform for us. Truly it is an immense effort. And it is made all the more complex and confusing by the fact that the technologies, the genres, and the work we're asking them to do are co-evolving, continually influencing one another. As a result, there's no place to stand that isn't itself unstable, or at least uncertain." David M. Levy, Scrolling Forward

To me, this paragraph is reassuring. There is all this new technology out there, and it scares people. No one is quite sure what to do with it or what it's going to do to us. When I found out the classes I signed up for at ASU East were going to be Internet classes, I was relieved. I wouldn't have to drive an hour to get to school, and I could do all my work from home on my spare time. But then when the reality of the classes hit me, I was scared. How would I, an affirmed procrastinator, get my work done on time when there wouldn't be regularly scheduled classes where I could be reminded to do my homework? And when I had assignments where I had to use technology that was new to me, I was terrified. How was I supposed to finish an assignment like that when there wasn't a teacher showing me on a blackboard how to do it? I was literally on the verge of quitting. But I got through it, and after almost a full semester I've realized that online classes are everything I'd hoped they'd be. I have learned more about how to use the Internet than I ever thought I would. So Levy's words are comforting, and make you sit back and just relax about technology. We all just have to go with the flow and see where it takes us.

This paragraph applies quite nicely to the new medium of the blog. No one knows what the future will bring for blogs. Is this just a passing fad, will there still be blogs in five years? Will blogs continue to be personal journals, or will they turn into something more than that, a new kind of publishing media? Already there are new uses being found for blogs. Initially, blogs were pages of links to other pages with some personal commentary thrown in. Since those first blogs appeared in 1998, blogs have become more like online journals where people record their daily activities. Many reporters for online news sources keep blogs where they give a mix of news and opinions. And now I'm writing a paper for class in the form of a blog. So the future of blogs is wide-open. I doubt they will disappear, but I think there will continue to be different genres of the blog created. Some will be links pages, some will be personal journals, others news-related, etc. And the important thing to remember is not to worry about what they will become and how they're not like they were, but to become excited about the possibilites they present as a way to create new types of interactions between people.