My Personal Reasons For Blogging
The internet reflects how fickle people are. I have been reading about blogging. Some say it’s the be all, end all. Some say that it’s already history and are already off to the next greatest new thing. There are opinions about what should be in a blog, how to drive traffic to your blog, how to make money on your blog. Some writers say you shouldn’t post personal articles on your professional blog. There are some blogs I read for pure enjoyment of the writing, some I read for information, and some to make me think.
A post by Doctor Bell made some of the thoughts I have had about all this bubble up to the surface. E-mail was discussed in another post and I have some thoughts about that as well.
I am easier to reach by e-mail than I am by phone. I use it constantly and have long passed from the stage where I forwarded every story that came down the electronic pike and rarely have time to read all the forwards that are sent to me. I try though and for a very personal reason. I recently had a relative in another state who had had a heart condition for years. She had stents, by-pass surgery, valve replacement, and through all that kept going as much as possible. She sent several email forwards a day and usually I just read them and deleted but tried to answer a few from time to time with a note. Last month one of her replies led me to realize that she was on hospice care. several weeks later we got news that she had passed. My inbox is emptier and the crazy thing is – I miss it.
That said, I want to list my reasons for blogging. I started out again, for personal reasons. My husband was very ill and we spent almost two months altogether in the hospital. I stayed with him and the hospital was nearly a hundred miles from my kids, my job, my church, and my friends. I felt completely overwhelmed during that time, and very much alone with my fear for my husband, my worries about my kids, bills, and the future. Writing and reading became my survival. I wrote about what was happening so I could look at it and say “okay – that’s that – now move on”
As Dale recovered, I was able to read and think about other things. It helped to think and write about a future I was starting to believe might exist. I was starting to hope again.
I know that there are probably only a handful of posts that have anything of any real value to people not actually related to me and even fewer that have any real original thinking in them, but I also see a growth process happening.
Blogging has become a habit I enjoy. The reasons are varied and in trying to break it down it comes out like this:
1. To crystalize my thoughts about something I am learning.
2. To share something I have learned with others. Even if I am reiterating information I think of it like rain on the pond. Each person posting on a topic is a drop and the ripples spread out from their little drop. Eventually the whole pond gets covered.
3. To pass on a memory, hopefully to my kids or to share with my brothers who live in other states and who I don’t see nearly enough.
4. To keep a record, maybe just for myself of what is going on in my life and around me.
5. To have conversations with people that can teach me, who I would never have the chance to get to know any other way.
6. To satisfy my addiction to note-taking (in a place where I can always find them LOL)
7. To make it pretty – it’s just fun for me to play with. I will occasionally change the theme and in the process of changing and adding things I learn more and more about the mechanics of the software.
WordPress and the Akismet feature do a great job keeping spam away. I will get the occasional spam comment entry but so far I have gotten an email telling me to moderate the entry every time.
My little corner of the blogosphere isn’t going to shake the world or make me rich. I will post occasionally about the personal daily muddling of my life. My grammar will NOT be perfect and I may even let a spelling error get through now and then. If you come here expecting some deep thought provoking conversation and find it, no one will be more surprised than me. It could happen – life is funny. I hope Ma Bell will keep blogging as well – her part of the pond needs it’s raindrops. If blogging is becoming old hat then so be it – I like old hats. They keep the rain off my head.
Dee I enjoyed your comments very much! Having just started my blog, I did not want to hear that blogs are on the way out. My thoughts are beginning to crystallize, as you suggest, through writing and thinking about digital communication. I think one venue does not need to upstage another, and that all methods will have users as long as they fill needs. Email, blogging, IM, chat, vlogs, etc. are similar in that they are ways to communicate but each has different strengths and weaknesses. I will be writing columns in the future about both email and blogging. I had originally intended to write just one and cover both, but now think I need to separate columns. Thanks for your comments!
Great post – I wish I had more profound thoughts to share on my blog, but it is mostly fluff pieces and a chance to showcase my Flickr photos. And Roy.
Well, Roy is important!
I think a blog SHOULD reflect your interests. That’s the great thing about them – they can be whatever you want them to be. My interests just happen to be technology and it’s use in education. I wish I had a talent for photography but I definitely enjoy the fruits of your talent! My desktop wallpaper file is full of BJ flickr goodness and I have seen a growth in your talent over the last year. By the way – if you are interested in using your creative talent in writing google ficlets – it’s a website where people write a short fiction story and then others can pick up and add sequels. There is some adult content there so it probably isn’t for school use at this point. Hopefully someone in the future will take the idea and run with it for that use but there is still some great stuff there. PS Sorry your road trip didn’t work out.
Good post. I’ve been thinking a lot about why I have blog, too.
Ok, now that you have my email, so just shoot me one, and I’ll get you added to the website. It’s only private because it has pictures of me on it. I doubt Jason wants his pic on there.