Worrying

Hello, back again. Haven't posted in any substantial way for about a year because I had other things going on in the real world (college, graduation, moving across the pond, looking for a job, etc). Also, there's something that has begun to profoundly worry me about the blogosphere, namely, the old statistician's problem of an unbiased sample.

Here's what I mean: a lot of commentators have held up the advent of the blogosphere as the rise of individual voices that tell us what America (and the rest of the world) are really thinking, on all sides of every issue. However, the sample of blogs is spectacularly biased, if only because bloggers are self-selecting - most importantly, you need to have the time and energy to post. People like my father, who are extremely politically aware and have strong views on everything under the sun, are simply too busy to make his voice heard on the internet. When I read threads on Atrios and Kos I think, "Yes! There are like-minded people out there - we're going to drive a revolution in American politics." But the best explanation for why denizens of the blogosphere overwhelmingly supported candidates like Dean, Kucinich and Clarke, and then Kerry won the primaries, is because the vast majority of these voters doesn't have the time or energy to read or write blogs.

So, instead of blogging, I'm going to go back to studying my LSAT book to hopefully get into a good law school and then go into politics after that. That's why I won't be posting much any more, probably - I'll be working in the real world to make things that I care about happen. This doesn't mean I am tearing the blogosphere down, or that I don't think it has a very, very important function for the people who are able to support themselves blogging or have the time to do so. I just think I can make more of a difference personally by concentrating on the real world for a change.