Is there life after hope?

I read with some discomfort the article in the Wall Street Journal about retirees who have taken up blogging ("Put it in writing" by Ronni Bennett 6/14/08 (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB121259672013845371.html)) and I cringed in sudden familiarity with the segment of the population to which I am sliding into and becoming what she calls an "elderblogger." Oh, God, she's talking about me!

Is it worse or better that the esteemed WSJ is turning its eyes towards this demographic that might not make it through the digital world without its help.

Although she writes that blogging can be an antidote to loneliness, she does list some bloggers who have other reasons such as learning something about yourself, vacations, humor and public policy.

I just wonder if I'm more comfortable with my self in a solitary mode than most people. I can't ever say I've been lonely in my heart. That's not to say that I would never be lonely. Most people go through that stage at least one point or other in their lives. When my husband and my son and my nine siblings die, maybe I'll be lonely, too.

This new way of communicating (not so new, maybe five years old or longer) might be opening up new avenues for us to express ourselves in ways we've not found available before. Yes, we've written journals and diaries for years and years, but what's the point if no one reads them, right. Not that anyone is reading this. But I wonder why the writer says blogging has helped her form more friendships, have deeper more personal connections than we do with our real world friends. Is that the same phenomenon as being much more open to a complete stranger than to someone you know.

I worry about the Internet being the medium through which we make connections, deeper connections if you ask Bennett. It seems counterintuitive, as she says. I worry enough that we spend too much time texting and talking through computers to another person barely a room away. What is happening to talking face to face?

For the aging, (the really aging ones, not me) loneliness is an issue and if the Internet can help relieve loneliness then I'm all for it. But blogging seems like sticking a message in a bottle and setting it out to sea and hope a message comes back to you. What is it about our human need to reach out, no matter what the medium and even if no one sends a message back. Is there life after hope?