Live it, don't just blog it

I've just spent a delightful afternoon in the cosy surrounds of the James Squire Brewhouse with some well-informed friends watching the Midterm Midtacular results on CNN. Between the dozen of us, there were enough smart-arse remarks, well-formed observations and generally intelligent questions to make the afternoon a fun one. Sure, the flash looking big-screen TV was an essential part of our election-info diet, but it was an event to be enjoyed collectively.

Not so the blogosphere. After arriving home, I've logged on to see what the rest of the world has to say, and I'm startled by the obsessiveness of many bloggers. There were countless bloggers who took it upon themselves to blog the events of the evening in excrutiating detail, with every twist and turn documented for all eternity.

Sure, I admire their commitment to their craft, but here's what I don't get: why did these clearly intelligent and well-informed people spend their election night whiling away the hours in front of their computer screens when there were many an election party to be enjoyed? Would their time have not been better spent enjoying victory or commisserating defeat in the arms of friends, no doubt whilst imbibing a Dennis Hastert-like quantity of ale? Or, and this is the intriguing thing, are their on-line buddies now their circle of friends, with a big night spent with them being preferable to one in the company of flesh-and-blood humans?


Victorious Democrats, moments before returning to their computers to blog all about it.