This thing called depth

End of the year/start of the new year reflections always seem to centre on meaning and depth. We desire to eliminate meaningless and shallow pursuits in favor of more substantial ones. John Connell asks how to best move to greater depth: “Do we need the bloggers’ equivalent of the Slow Movement? Authentic blogging? Critical blogging? Reflective blogging? Blogging09?” Will Richardson picks up on a similar theme: “I did some counting yesterday. Totalled up all of the blog posts and comments on those posts for the last three years, and found a pretty interesting relationship. Seems the less I write, the more people comment”.
A healthy sign of maturity for any field is the recognition, partly reflected in Perry’s scheme of intellectual and ethical development, that a larger reality exists outside of the field where we personally spend most of our time. New literacies do not necessarily replace what was important previously. Previously important literacies are at least partly subsumed in new literacies. The maturation of blogging is partly found in main stream media adopting blogs. The other critical ingredient in maturing the field will be found in bloggers participating in previous publication forums (journals, books, etc.).