I was listening to Desert Island Disks last week when I suddenly realised that, with the web being such an important part of our lives, there are blogs we cannot live without; blogs that, should we miss a daily visit, will make us feel as though something is missing.
Here are four ‘Desert Island Blogs’ that would make life stranded on a sandy beach that little bit more interesting (and don’t point out the obvious that if we could read blogs then we could not possibly be stranded without hope of rescue).
More often than not, the word ‘hack’ is given negative associations, ie fiddling around with secure computer networks when you know it is illegal and not yours to touch. However, ‘to hack’ also means to perfect or to tweak until you get something working the way you want it to.
Therefore Lifehacker.com provides great tips for the geeky and non-geeky among us on how to tweak our lives to get a little more out of it.
From tips on how to ‘reboot’ your body clock by fasting for 16 hours to crafting home-made dog treats and learning a foreign language by changing the language settings on your gadgets, this blog will teach you how to hack your life for the better.
If you’re stranded on a desert island you are probably already feeling quite relaxed, what with the sound of waves washing onto the shore and the gentle thud of coconuts as they drop into the sand at your feet.
On the other hand, if you are sitting at an office desk you may need to bring some Zen-like perspective into your life. Zen Habits is a lovely blog to dip in and out of when you’re feeling a tad stressed – it’s a bit like having The Little Book of Calm at your fingertips, except it is regularly updated and of course you can add your own thoughts in the comments section.
Sure, we’re hearing more than we bargained for about a damaged and declining global economy, and it is never a good idea to bury one’s head in the sand, so this particular blog from Time magazine offers a kind of compromise.
While it does offer updates on global economic news, it is firmly fixed in the context of hope. The blog’s tagline is ‘How the meltdown is an opportunity to get ourselves back on track’. This blog is a little light-hearted and attempts to get us to think in a ‘glass half full’ way. Nice try but it all depends on whether that glass has a few cracks in it or if others seem to have much bigger glasses than you.
Isn’t it funny how the internet has not just become a way to consume and disseminate information but had also developed a unique culture of its own?
Like other cultures, the internet has its own particular language, trends, cliques, unspoken faux pas and so on. If you were to click a little off the beaten path and come upon pictures of kittens with strange misspelled captions or Rick Astley videos or strings of LOLs and ROFLS, what would you do?
If you are incredibly confused at this point get yourself over to Boing Boing, one of the hotbeds of geek or web culture.
