Water deprivation is part of the classic image of a poor African or Middle Eastern family. Many acknowledge the fact that clean drinking water is hard to come by in Africa and the Middle East and that sanitation is a big issue, but few respond to this knowledge. Since it doesn’t effect the Western world directly, it doesn’t get any attention. Only issues that are important and relevant to the Western world get the attention, hype and care needed.

The media world and the blogging world focus on issues like public heath, debt recovery politics and a wide range of issues. Focus never leaves the blogger or the blog reader, issues are always about the two. This makes sense, why write and read about things that don’t concern you? But this is exactly the issue, people and populations are so SELF INDULGED that focus can never turn from themselves. Blogs about the disparity in water access world wide will never get hot because people rather write and read passionately about things that are relevant to themselves instead of other people. Water access is not relevant to the Western world, but is a very important issue elsewhere is the world. There is a lack of attention to the outside world and everyone is just concerned about their own well being.  The problems created by the water access disparity in the world will never become a hot topic in the Western world.

By July 2005, an AOL study showed that about half of blog users in the U.S kept a blog because it served as a form of therapy. People in the U.S are so desperate to have someone to talk meaningfully with and have someone to vent to, that if there is no one, a blog is the next best thing to have. The blog is traditionally used to amplify the opinions of users from a grass roots level. It is used to voice opinions, thoughts, views and emotions that wouldn’t otherwise be heard through main stream media. But more and more, blogs are kept for emotional purposes. Underneath all of the political opinions and slanders, a blogger will reveal personal feelings and emotions. This is because venting on a blog is easier than finding someone who can talk, share and communicate on a personal level with the blogger. The blog has become an emotional outlet, not just an opinion outlet.

It seems silly to pour out one’s soul into the computer and put it in digital form for the world to see when there are plenty of people out there to talk to. But this isn’t so. U.S culture has evolved in such a way that people are too self involved to enter into another’s world. People are to self involved to take the time to listen to anyone and really think about what they are trying to communicate. People are always worried about what their schedule is like or what they are going to say next in a conversation, but never really take the time to listen and think about what a person is communicating, feeling and living. There is so much self indulgence, that it is driving everyone crazy because they don’t have anyone to turn to. So people turn to therapists and blogs to vent.

“Therapy blogging” is the result of the lack of a skill: listening. People across the U.S lack the skill of listening and being able to enter another person’s world and spirit. There for we have a country of normal people driven crazy because they have no one to talk to. SELF INDULGENCE is the product of a modern world and a current U.S. In later blogs, I will discuss some of the causes and dangerous of self indulgence and discuss why the period of Listening is a distant past. The lack of ability to enter another’s spirit and world has started an era of therapy blogging.