“Some blogs—by pundits, professors and pompous gits—would seem to have little to do with . . . identity-creation, but of course that’s not really the case. These blogs are superficially about current events, but their real topics are their authors. The blog is where you make yourself into an authoritative person, a source of information and insightful analysis. A long-haired, middle-aged, professor might use his blog in order to affirm his identity as an eccentric outsider still in touch with his students. This . . . is a kind of dreaming, a fantasy-creation which the blog helps make real.”

—Erik Ringmar, A Blogger’s Manifesto, 2007.