poltr1 | Why do I blog?

Originally asked by

ohi.

I started blogging about two years ago. I had heard and read about weblogs (or "blogs" as they were called), but wasn't really interested in one at the time. I thought, "Who would be interested in the minutia of my life?", and so didn't jump on the bandwagon right away. One of my friends from college had an account on livejournal.com, and sent me an "invite code" for me to start one here.

I've since seen and read about the business value of weblogs, especially if one is used to post a running log of a development or upgrade project. It's also great to communicate ideas, thoughts, and opinions to a mass audience without having to repeat myself and say the same thing over and over again to anyone who asks me what's going on in my life.

I know I tend to ramble on and put in a lot of the gory details that nobody but myself cares to read about. That's my judgement from the lack of responses I get. But those small points are important to me, and help me remember in greater detail and clarity what I was doing the day I wrote the entry. Plus it's my journal, and there's no One True Way to make entries in journals or weblogs. Some use their journals to rant and rave. Others use it to chronicle their day's events. Others use it as their own personal soapbox, to pontificate and/or express their opinions. And some use it to share an interesting or amusing tidbit of information that they came across.

Most of my entries are either of reflection and observation. And some are merely expressing an opinion. I have a unique view of the world I live in. I may focus on something obscure or esoteric, something that most other people missed as they went by. It's like me noticing the carcass of a dead animal on the side of the highway, and nearly everyone else has passed without giving it any heed. Or sometimes it could be an entirely off-the-wall thought, like "Can atheists sue for acts of God?" or "How many men have confessed their lust for Wonder Woman after she's caught them with her Golden Lasso of Truth?" I know I'm an out-of-the-box thinker.

So why publicize and track this information in a public forum? To me, blogging is like making a Jackson Pollack painting -- take the things in my life, wad them up, throw them against the wall, and see how much sticks to the wall. Sometimes these things make sense or look different to me at a later time, when I'm not so emotionally charged or involved. Sometimes they resontate with other people. And sometimes they don't.

Or why even blog at all? Why can't I say these things in person? First, I'm somewhat "confined to quarters" and don't get out as much as I used to because there is a toddler in my household. Second, I find it easier to communicate through the written word then the spoken word. It's really hard for me to jump into a live conversation without risking interrupting someone, and by the time I finally get in, what I want to say is so five minutes ago. Third, I like having the ability to edit my words on a screen before I actually "utter" them. I tend to think non-linearly, and often have to jump back to something that was said earlier to clarify or add something.