A recent Washington Post column queried Bloggers on the Reasons Behind Their Daily Words. Reading it got me to thinking yet again about why I blog.
I started my website back in 2000, when Shadows Fall was first published, for the same reason most writers do, to promote my work. Four years later I started this blog as a way to provide up-to-date content on my website and let visitors know what I was working on—basically as a way to keep the website from stagnating when too much time passed between novels. Little did I know at the time that the blog would engage so much of my attention.
The immediacy of this format holds a certain attraction. Type, click a button, and what you’ve written is published. But that has its drawbacks. As easy as email, which carries its own risks, a blog can suck you out into public view in a way that’s scary and in some ways deceiving. It’s easy to forget you’re putting yourself “out there” to the degree we do online. After all, I’m seated here alone at my home computer as I type this into a little window on my screen. It doesn’t feel public at all, at the time I write.
I tend to be more reticent when I’m face to face with people. As a private person—in fact an introvert—I find the public aspect of blogging conflicts with those personal, internal privacy constraints. The degree of narcisim that comes into play in me when I engage in this blog or others startles me, especially after the fact, if I go back and read what I’ve said. I’ve always kept a journal, so I grew accustomed, years ago, to exploring and sorting out my thoughts by writing them down. But that used to be strictly private. Anything that might be published went through heavy editing and self-censoring. It had time to simmer, to boil down, before it left my hands and confronted other readers. Even then, I sometimes felt overexposed when submitting work. I’ve come to realize this mental exploration through words can come across in blogging and commenting as total self-absorption. At least that’s how I see it. I find myself talking about me, me, me, in a way I rarely do in real life, and then only with a select few people. I’m not sure I like doing this online. It’s a little too much of me, if you ask me.
Maybe blogging and commenting is too easy, too instant, too uninhibited—and far too permanent once it’s out there. Effective, judicious communication requires more time, more thought, more self-editing than this. I feel a need to take a step back. I’m not this spontaneous a person.
Then again, maybe getting me out of my native reticence is a good thing. The business end of writing requires that one put oneself out in the world in a way that’s uncomfortable to many of us who tend to be introverts. Writing is the form of communication we’re most comfortable with, so blog as conversation is a handy tool for us to use.
There’s a teaching attributed sometimes to Sufism, and other times to Socrates as the Triple Filter Test. It states that one shouldn’t speak until one’s words have passed through three gates or filters: truth, necessity, and kindness. Still, the questions linger in my mind, especially recently. So much of the rest of my life draws me, calls to me. I find I’m leaving the blog sit for long periods of time. I’m building dreams in the physical world that I want to pour my energy and time into.
Is all this blogging I do really necessary? Does it serve a purpose—the right purpose? If it’s all just so much babble about me or my life or my opinions, why do it at all? And what about my comments elsewhere? I’m a passionate, opinionated person. I’m an impulsive, temperamental commenter. I flare up over news or politics. I say things on the spur of the moment that I may later regret, because I didn’t think things through, or I wrote out of context to the original post, or I reacted and blurted out my first thought rather than responding from my core. Maybe I erred, or changed my mind. I’m not afraid to admit when I do that, but a comment made on a blog I visit may be around for a long time, while I may forget where it was. I have gone back and edited my posts on my blog at times, sometimes deleted them altogether. But, just as with emails, when we don’t know who they may be forwarded to, we lose control of comments.
Now this is not to say I intend to give up blogging—or commenting. I don’t. But recently I want to give all this more thought, take it a little slower. Is my attitude about this suddenly too furtive, too cautious? Am I dithering?
Sometimes I wonder if the next step beyond blogging is for the human race to become more telepathic. Here in the blogosphere we sometimes share our thoughts almost as soon as we think them. They’re not just first draft writing, sometimes they’re first draft thoughts. They spring newborn onto the screen, brain to fingers to blogosphere. Telepathy sometimes seems like the next logical step. If we need to be concerned with those three gates or filters when speaking and writing, perhaps blogging will teach us to engage them when thinking as well, to govern our thoughts, preparing us to wise up before we jump that communicative gap. Or is it possible that our thoughts already carry far more power—or distance—than we realize? Who knows?
So I wonder, why do other people blog, and how do you feel about it?
Have your reasons for doing it changed since you began?
Have you written posts or comments you regretted?
Does blogging accomplish a purpose for you? If so, what?
1.
I considered this very thought, sometimes we say what we feel at the moment, inspired,angered, enraged, or melencholy. I think that we live in such a fast pace world we have too few times to share the feelings that we have and need some type of vent. Venting is good… I think we also seek those who feel and have the same opinion or goals or sometimes just the opposite… I have just started this year and think that it is very positive way to express yourself, encourage others that feel lost abandoned by societies dredges… I started a blog on lifeintheusafastlane.blogspot.com One of my first blogs I wrote I got a comment that was negative and disturbing-but I think you have to take those things as a grain of salt…. Not so seriously. Have a great week-end…
Michael
Comment by michael gable — March 10, 2006 @ 4:36 pm
2.
I am a pretty chatty, open person in general. So, whatever I say in the blog, I would say to pretty much anyone in person, too. There is definitely a sense of self-censorship, though. I would never write something that would humiliate my kids, or my husband, or my friends. And I find it a refreshing was to do some writing, which I enjoy. Loved your post here, btw…very thoughtful
Comment by violetismycolor — March 11, 2006 @ 1:07 pm
3.
I started my blog to talk to other writers only to find that I ended up talking to myself. Nothing new about that…but like most I’d enjoy some feed back. Am I writing about something anybody would care about? Do you care what happens to a 16 year old boy raised on the Russian River in Northern California? What happens when summer finally arrives and his small resort town of 270 people turns into 2,500 overnight.
Or what about, “The Tankers” a hard core Sereant arrives to find that his new tank crew are just boys wearing Army uniforms. Will anybody read this? Will you? Do you have the time?
Comment by Old Soldier — March 11, 2006 @ 5:45 pm
4.
I blog because I like it. And I comment often because I like to and it seems that most bloggers crave comments.
We have 8 other bloggers in our family, and a whole bunch of lurkers. It’s an easy way for us to keep track of what’s happening.
By nature, I’m a very careful person, and because of that, don’t reveal much on my blog. My husband’s name is Don, and we live in Bucks County PA. Even those facts were carefully considered before they went on the internet.
But I really do enjoy blogging - and I find that reading other blogs is more fun than writing my own.
Comment by cas — March 12, 2006 @ 6:44 am
5.
Well, Barbara…I’ve wrestled with those public/private demons, too. And I’ve finally come to the conclusion that anyone who really wants to know about me will find out, because all of us have had our privacy invaded by the government already. I have accepted that as the fallout from living in the world today.
So when I, an almost-mute around live people, get on a keyboard, it’s Katie-bar-the-door. I have these bipolar mood swings that destroy any degree of self-control I might be able to muster, so I just spew, a lot of the time. I write much the same way, just spew it out and then go through the editing process at length. Or not, sometimes I just let stand what I’ve spewed. Now THAT’S not good. But then again, I have a habit of just spewing on other’s blogs comments sections. So far most of it’s been pretty funny, according to feedback, but it’s all fiction. All of it. I just make it up as I go along.
The above comment, that our pace of life has gotten so fast, I echo. With the advent of .25-second cuts in TV commercials, jittery hand-held cameras in programs and the “instant” speed of life in the media, we find ourselves trying to keep pace with kids whose synapses and response times are microscopic. There’s nothing like the measured pace of those over 50. I’ve slowed down so much in the last four years I don’t know myself any more. But that’s good, I get to find out who I am again.
So a huge dichotomy exists and gets wider all the time. The music, the media, are being forced to push everything faster, faster, faster, to keep the hyperactive minds of the young engaged, while we Baby Boomers are slowing down and want more time to think about things, comprehend. I don’t know which will win out. Something, somewhere has to give.
Okay, so much for the speed-of-light rant. Let’s talk about the problem with blogging: telling the world too much. I don’t know what to think except to preface everything with the famous disclaimer, “EVERYTHING you see here is a lie, a big, fat, blown-all-out-of-proportion lie. I made it all up.” After all, if what’s his name can write a memoir that’s fabricated, why not write a couple of memoirs that are total fabrication? It’s down to reading for entertainment or learning, and there’s not a lot of time LEFT for reading. After all, the iPod’s calling. Not to mention email, the blog, the on-line photo blog, etc etc etc and my cell phone’s ringing again. Dang, while I was talking I got three more text messages!
My writing is becoming even more entertaining, I hope, because I can’t write non-fiction. Oh, yes, dig up facts to support the action so someone who KNOWS the area won’t think I’m a total flake, but those facts come off the internet and can be as wacky as a Wikipedia entry. I just can’t track a lot of details well enough to write true thought-provoking non-fiction, I get scattered in the middle of it. So I suppose that makes me a write-off as far as saying anything pithy or true.
I don’t know, Barbara, I just don’t know any more. I think I tend to say whatever comes off the top of my head because it’s such a hassle to sit and debate it with myself. And in truth, if pressed I’d have to write down what I wanted to say, if I knew it was gonna be held against me. That’s why I can’t ever testify in court.
Enough. Hope I’ve given you some good feedback on your question.
Comment by For The Trees — March 12, 2006 @ 3:24 pm
6.
I think that blogging improves with time; improves the content, improves the writing, and improves the creative flow. We all-at least those of us who blog almost on a daily basis-blurt out our feelings now and then, and that’s okay. Yes, I have gone back and deleted something that was too whiney, too angry, or too personal; but in many ways it just shows that the writer is learning to voice emotions into a more lyrical form of writing rather than simply throwing something at a wall. I always appreciate your comments, Barbara, and if I ever saw something from a commenter that I felt they might want to reconsider, I’d send them an e-mail to ask them. Don’t worry. Keep blogging.
Comment by susan — March 12, 2006 @ 3:42 pm
7.
Interesting question: why blog?
What’s the difference between a private and public journal… and what do we get out of sharing our thoughts in a public forum like this?
Can it be that blogging is a way to mark our presence in the universe, an I-Am-Here kind of announcement, a plea not to be ignored?
Or perhaps a way to forge a community, to step out of one’s loneliness… and share deep (and not so deep) feelings?
Blogging is like thinking out-loud … and there’s an excitement in the process of thinking out-loud and inviting responses, isn’t there?
It’s almost as if blogging helps satisfy our desire for intimacy and relationships… in ways that may elude us in today’s fast-paced, impersonal world.
Ironically, we’re using the same technology that fosters isolation and speed… to slow ourselves down, to say Listen to what I think… and ask, in response, what do you think?
So, blogging, in this sense, is a way of forming friendships… although perhaps that’s taking it too far.
It is a way of knowing other people (strangers, really) from the inside out. We don’t really care about appearances, do we? Just a person’s spirit and heart and his or her ability to communicate thoughts and feelings in words.
Blogging, ultimately, is an act of hope, I think, a way of reaching out and hoping for a response.
It requires an act of faith, too-just as all writing does-that the words will come (whether or not they spark a response from a reader).
In the end, blogging helps us come to know ourselves better… what we think, what we feel.
And when blogging works, it helps us make connections that enable us to better understand other people, too
Comment by Bruce Black — March 13, 2006 @ 8:10 am
8.
Extremely interesting post. I am constantly wondering about my own reasons for blogging. Some weeks (or months) I find myself full of ideas and enthusiasm and I’ll post daily for awhile. Then for weeks I’ll have neither ideas nor inclination. Perhaps it’s best just to blog when and if you feel like it, admitting that, essentially, it is ourselves we blog for, because we enjoy it.
I am an introvert, so blogging, for me, is more an excuse to write than to socialize. My blog is not really very personal. I enjoy reading personal stuff but I’m not comfortable putting that sort of thing out in public. Very often I wonder, why should anyone care about what I’m saying? Probably I can answer what the value of my own blogging is by reflecting on the fact I like to read blogs by others like yourself.
I don’t take a lot of time polishing my blogs. But to compensate I make them short, so that I can still give some adequate consideration to what I say. I don’t want to labor over them, but I don’t want to embarrass myself in public either.
The “publicity” aspect of my blog is mostly an excuse. My real motivation is pretty peculiar. For years, back in the seventies and early eigties, I was involved in sf fandom, publishing, reading and trading and writing letters to fanzines. Most of the zines weren’t about sf, but more about the zines’ editors. It was a kind of very slow internet via paper and post. It involved exactly the sort of personal writing you see on blogs today. So, for me, the idea that I’d have an excuse to engage in that sort of relaxed writingbut without having to pay postage or pay for dulicating let alone print on a hectograph or a mimeographor or spirit duplicator — well I couldn’t resist. So my blogs are just like what I used to write in my old fanzine, but, I hope, better written.
And yeah, we write about ourselves. But I don’t think it’s egotism. We just take ourselves as the most accessible subject to satisfy our need to write something.
Comment by Eric Mayer — March 14, 2006 @ 11:20 am
9.
I’m amazed sometimes which posts get a lot of comments and which don’t. Thanks all for sharing your thoughts on this.
Michael, it’s those things I write when I’m angry (or passionate, as with politics) that really come back to haunt me. I guess people have to take the bad with the good, but when it’s my first and possibly only comment on someone’s blog, or when my emotion comes from my life, not precisely the topic at hand, it disturbs me. I try not to be unkind, though I worry about people taking what I say in a way I didn’t intend. My words come out harsh at times.
Violetismycolor, yes, the personal information requires careful thought. I like to protect others from public display that would embarrass them. I debated, and even consulted a few family members, about one of my recent posts.
Old Soldier, thanks for stopping by. Do you still have a blog? I didn’t see a link for one on your website.
Cas, I think that’s great to have so many bloggers in the family. I agree with being careful about what to share. I use my real name, so to me that’s almost enough personal information, and I only provide that because of my fiction. (I debate with myself sometimes about writing under a penname.) Yes, reading other blogs is such a draw it takes up most of my blogging time. I have trouble keeping the number of places I visit under control.
For the Trees, that’s great feedback. I understand the “almost mute” bit, too. If I had a nickel for every time someone’s told me I’m “too quiet.” I detest that. How quiet is too quiet anyway? I like to think I’m a good listener (although I’m sometimes not). And you’re right, life is too fast paced these days.
Susan, thanks, and I do think that with practice and patience, not being so impulsive, we can all learn to share our opinions more creatively and perhaps less harshly.
Bruce, excellent thoughts. I do look at this as a way of finding community. In too many places today people hide behind gated communities or treat strangers on the street as if they were criminals.
Eric, the originating publicity aspect of my blog has turned out to be more of an excuse than otherwise. Yeah, those blogging droughts are curious, a little like writer’s block, with some differences. I still want to write, during those times, just not material for my blog.
Comment by Barbara — March 15, 2006 @ 7:59 pm
10.
Have your reasons for doing it changed since you began?
I originally started an online journal because I had all these thoughts running around in my head and it was a way of clearing out the detritus. But then it evolved into more thoughtful communication with a community of friends. I write and often re-write before I post my entry for the day. I’m not just clearing out junk; I have things I want to say and you are people I want to say it to.
Have you written posts or comments you regretted?
No, not really. Anything more insightful or intimate that comments on the weather are written in Word and reviewed for content and error before being posted. A couple that I have written about my mother never saw the light of day.
Does blogging accomplish a purpose for you? If so, what? It gives me the opportunity to communicate, to share ideas and life events with compatible intelligent people. I work in a blue-collar industry and not many people are logophiles; my husband, on the other hand, has two advanced degrees and his “conversations” with me are always condescenting and professorial, as if I were in need of instruction and the benefit of his paterfamilias wisdom. I look to you for exchange of ideas, a few humorous comments, insight on today’s world and verbal companionship.
Comment by Sarah — March 16, 2006 @ 10:45 am
11.
and of course, if I could type, I’d be dangerous….
I meant “condescending” but I have dyslexic fingers….
Comment by Sarah — March 16, 2006 @ 10:50 am
12.
Not surprised that this post got a lot of comments. I think our reasons for blogging are very personal. Some a-list bloggers like Joi Ito (and soon perhaps Dave Winer) and some very prolific and insightful bloggers like Stephen Downes have recently stopped, probably because they don’t have a great answer anymore for ‘why do I blog?’ Barbara, my guess is that your reason and mine are similar — we both love to write and to share ideas, and that is enough. Another interesting question would be: If you stopped getting comments and e-mails on your blog posts, would you keep blogging?
Comment by Dave Pollard — March 19, 2006 @ 10:08 pm
13.
I find that I locate and connect with compatible people a little easier this way, Sarah. That’s more tricky in real life, with the limited number of people we can normally get out and meet—even those who are very social, which I’m not. On the internet no one is concerned with appearance or social status. We get down to the inner workings of our psyches more freely in some ways, less easily in others without the aid of tone of voice, eye contact, and body language. I think this will always appeal more to those who are comfortable expressing themselves in writing. Others prefer talking face to face or on the phone. To each his own.
Dave, I’m not sure how a lack of comments would affect my blogging. I suspect I’d keep doing it, but I know I’m influenced by comments. There’s an interaction, a response in me to the feedback. What I write might change.
I’ve sometimes wondered if blogging will turn out to be a fad, here for a while, then gone. I’m sure it will go through some ups and downs, and evolve. People will try it for a while and quit. But others will keep doing it. I know of mailing lists and forums that have been around for years. They change over time. Blogging will surely change too. The available software—even what’s free—is pretty amazing. I doubt it will go to waste. As long as we can get electricity and a connection (which could get dicey as the world runs low on oil), I think some of us will continue blogging.
Comment by Barbara — March 20, 2006 @ 2:56 pm
14.
Why do we blog? I crafted my early thoughts about this from quotable C.S. Lewis: We blog to know we are not alone.
I’ve been blogging off and on for almost three years, and it feels like I’ve just begun. I’m not a life-long writer or diarist, so I’ve started from scratch with blogging — seeing new reflections of myself in what I write and what I don’t write, seeing the familiar in my irregular rhythms, in the tension between my extraverted tendencies and my introverted nature, being both delighted with and unsure of the public/private landscape.
I’ve never been a small-talker and I’m still unlearning a habit of thinking long and carefully before committing energy to words. I have a long way to go. Writing a blog post or making a comment like this one takes a lot of time and soul-searching, but it also offers the most satisfying communication — the sharing of the life of the mind. Why do I do this? Is it to know that I am not alone?
While I’ve been grappling with blogging and major life events, I’ve left commenting virtually alone. To truly engage takes time and energy, a willingness to risk, and for me enough experience of the blogosphere and myself in it to find a way to filter through (and filter out) the infinite, instant stimuli that so easily overwhelm.
And then I look up, see the sun rise or set, realize how long I’ve been sitting in this chair with my fibromyalgic body screaming: Move! And I wonder again why I do this….
Comment by Sage — April 4, 2006 @ 4:11 am