Is there anybody out there?

In all likelihood no one will ever read this blog. How many blogs are there that are being maintained regularly and never ever read. By anyone.

Except of course the one who wrote it. Blogging, and the internet in general, creates an additional barrier between the author of something (in this case a blog) and the reader. Because of things like stumble upon and Digg we come across blog posts all the time and then discard them very quickly, usually to be forgotten about. With something like a book the connection is made less often (assuming that people read books less often than they read blogs) and is also usually made with more of a purpose. We stumble across blogs all the time, but you rarely find yourself accidentally engrossed in a novel (I hope).

Because of this, it is easy to think of blog posts as being made by someone who is so anonymous that they might as well not even exist. But at some point in the chain of connection, everything you read is made by another human being. In a world where everything is increasingly automated and mechanical, the written word is one of the only things that machines can not duplicate. Yet

But baring the creation of some sort of super intelligent robot that can imitate human language, you can be sure that everything you read on the internet was at some point created by a human.

So, despite the fact that it will probably never be read, and at the most it will be a trivial blog post soon to be forgotten, I am writing this. Just to be writing. To prove I'm still human.

But if no one is reading, who am I proving it to?