I think most OSes lack something essential in not coming with their own journalling applications. They could sync with people's blogs, structuring information by topic and date. I think the OLPC has one. That's great. I think the system creates automatic entries in it based around activities you do. I don't really know. That reminds me of the Wii, which sort of has a log.

I think one of the benefits might be more reflection by computer users. A lot of people own blogs, but those are almost always targeted at some audience, so the nature of what gets written would be different than if it were an initially private (and only secondarily published) format.

I am somewhat pleased by the increased growth of spell checkers embedded into text entry forms. Firefox has enjoyed it for a while now, providing red underlines under unfamiliar terms. I hope other browsers do as well. I wonder whether there has been a decrease in the relative incidence of typos as a result. I suppose I also hope that having an existing facility for users to write in might help encourage development of complete thoughts and their structuring in text. More so than instant messaging and many modern e-mail messages do. I enjoy how much writing the Internet forces people to do, but it's often very brief.

I'm not very concerned about the quality of people, their thoughts, their writing, etc. I don't think text messaging on cellphones is causing society to collapse. However, I do want to read the thoughts of more people, and I think this might encourage it. :) Blogs give me much joy. For instance, the following excerpt with limited context:

"AUDREY!!! THERE'S A SNAKE IN MY TENT! PLEASE COME HERE!" I shouted from my perch.
"Oooo!" she yelled back. "Is it tiny and green?"
"NO YOU FOOL, IT'S BIG AND BLACK, IT'S THE %@$#*!& COBRA!!!"
"Oh. Coming!"

Snakes on a Plain