Dana Speer

What’s an inaugural blog without a little self-reflection, calling-a-spade-a-spade, and quantum physics? So I think I’ll initiate a discussion on the nature of blogging itself—or rather, what I see as the bottom line impetus behind many forms of information chronicling, especially personal, intended for a mass audience. Other blogs on this site might differ, but it has been my experience that the majority of blogging is personal. On the surface, a post might seem to be about the latest application for an iPhone. But the tone remains subjective, and the ultimate purpose of the post appears to be the enabling of a revelation more about the blogger than what is being blogged. In other words, the nature of an ongoing blog, nearly regardless of subject matter, ultimately serves to discuss the blogger: what does he or she like, what is he or she interested in, in effect, what are the components of him or her. Now this observation may or may not be news to anyone, but the question is why do we feel the need to expose ourselves in this public manner? Fascinatingly, I think at least one answer can be found in quantum physics.

Once upon a time, a physicist named Schrödinger created a theoretical experiment that amounted to putting a cat in a box with a chemical roommate designed to kill the cat if the right domino effect within the lethal compounds occurred. Catch was there was no way to know if the right substance triggers had happened without opening the box. The idea was to demonstrate that, unless and until empirically detected, either outcome for the cat (life or death) could be true. Taken the next logical step, both outcomes are true simultaneously—the cat is both alive and dead at the same time—until the box is opened, and one or the other result is observed.

The idea is that nothing truly exists until it is perceived.

Okay, so back to us. We know we live in the paradox that, from earliest childhood, the establishment of the individual is communal. And now, thanks to the Internet, we can extend the paradox by sharing the most intimate details of our individuality with a global community while remaining utterly alone. This last aspect, the solitude, affords us a peculiar amount of anonymity, even as we divulge ourselves. And perhaps more importantly, this private rendering of a public face allows us to craft that face meticulously so we can show only what makes us look worthy, hip, good. Simultaneously, remaining alone while sharing ourselves helps us to navigate around the cultural admonition against grandstanding. After all, it’s impolite to talk about ourselves too much, we’re told. But heck, sitting around on the couch in sweats while clicking away on a keyboard and eating cereal hardly feels like hamming it up. But it is. It’s the closest we can get to showboating without alienating our every last friend and scaring away small animals.

So what about Schrödinger and his damn box? Where does it fit into all of this? The answer is simple really: we actually need to be looked into. We need to share. The mechanisms of quantum physics play out on the psychosocial plane as much as on the physical. So, on a very fundamental level, we feel as if we don’t exist until perceived by another.

Witnessed.

Ultimately, what are Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and the type of information chronicled in most blogs but interpersonal versions of Schrödinger’s Box? They are big ol’ boxes of us, something to look inside, gain admittance to so that the “truth” will be perceived, measured, observed. Again, witnessed.

Blogging is a forum for our narrative. And our story feels meaningless until read. So welcome to my box.