Why Bother?

What is it about blogging that is so appealing to those who do it?

I’ve given it a bit of thought today while trying to consider what it is I really wanted to discuss. During those moments I couldn’t escape the fact that perhaps I’m just not a blogger even if there was a piece of me that really wanted to do it. To write something entertaining about what has been on my mind since last I spoke to my adoring zero fans. It dawns upon me that perhaps I haven’t really had much of substance in my mind to talk about. Random ideas of television and movies, upcoming games and experiences with work all interest me, but is this something that would engage someone that doesn’t know me. Would it even make sense to those that do know me? The answer I kept coming back to was a pretty definitive: probably not.

So I came to the thought: why do I want to do this so badly, to the point of stressing myself out. For a moment today I felt like I was in college again trying to justify why the majority of archaeology in the city of Chichen Itza was botched up. Yes, that is a paper I wrote and it did cause many sleepless nights with pen cap in my mouth and a mountain of books collapsed around the bed. I swear there were points during that paper that my, then, girlfriend was going to shove all the books off the bed so she could “sleep.” I digress, this is not the point, but as I wondered about my own ineptitude toward writing about myself I also considered if I was the only one. To this I know I am not, because every day there is some person that goes on and blogs about their experiences in World of Warcraft or Vlogs on YouTube just to complain about other users. This is a never ending cycle of new forms of media allowing people to communicate in new ways.

At its root though, this is still basic communication. It can be more anonymous now but it is still the desire to be heard by a person’s peers and perhaps have positive feedback. In an age of computers and high speed data transfer negative reactions can sometimes be just as effective as positive. So writers go about saying the most ridiculous things, holding the most ludicrous standpoints so that they might be recognized by those they feel are most important, almost like a slight God complex. These writers could be considered a pest on the internet stage but they are creating the feedback that they desire and always end up with followers that will happily ridicule them.

To continue with this thought I eventually; came to another revelation about bloggers: the majority of them are terrible writers. This type of forum is an open platform and allows any and all to publish their thoughts no matter how poorly articulated. As a personal thought I would hate to fall into this category but I realize I do not fall into the category of a professional writer or even blogger for that matter. This kind of writing skill comes from experience and practice. Without life experience what you write might not be at all interesting, it is always easier to write about what you know then writing a lot about something you know nothing about. The second factor in good blogging would be to consistently write. Good experience goes only so far if you cannot articulate it in an entertaining way that keeps your audience reading.

After all this thinking I came to realize I had a topic that I wanted to talk about, that I wanted input on. I wonder if there are other factors that go into good blogging that I might not have covered in my process. Moving forward, becoming more at ease with blogging, I will continue to practice and try to make my life more interesting in the hopes that perhaps someone will care enough to finish these extremely long posts to the end.