Blogging’s Cure for the Expat Blues: Summary

On the whole, the text deals with the advantages and disadvantages of blogs for expats. Among the list of uses of blogs, the author mentions a list of roles that a blog has, from a journal of everyday life abroad to a tool of communication and a means of therapy for those lonely expats who sometimes find it difficult to adapt to the new culture and difficulties they have to deal with in the new world.
Those expats who are desperately lonely in the foreign country and find it difficult to adapt to the new ways of life, find some consolation in ‘getting all the blues down’, typing their dissatisfactions and sending them to their friends and family from home. Sometimes, their confessions and troubles to adapt reach some other expat’s eyes and blogging in such a case evokes a correspondence with another expat. Thus, one disadvantage of blogging is that expats might overuse it as a form of therapy, isolating themselves from the real world. Experts point out that blogging should not replace blending in with the new culture and meeting ‘real’ people.
The author shows that the number of blogs and their readers are expanding throughout the world and that they are especially popular in the U.S. Expats even say that it is not important whether or not they can make money by offering their blogs to readers, because writing them is “an emotional necessity”. In addition, blogs represent a therapy for their troubles in s foreign country as well as they enable making friends with other expats that are in the same situation.