on blogging

I have been thinking a lot about blogging lately.

If you've been reading since my first post (or if you are new to the blog, simply read the first post), then you will know that I was hesitant to start this thing from the beginning.

I think the blog world is bizarre...anybody can have one and anybody can read one.  There are a lot of different types of blogs; there are the big-time blogs that are associated with professions, like the Sartorialist, and then there are the small-time blogs, like this one.  This post mainly concerns the small-time blogs.

Whenever I find myself reading someone's blog, I feel like I am reading a diary.  A lot of personal blogs are just that, personal.  People blog about the weirdest shit like the name they chose for their one-thousandth cat or the cute new Christmas socks that they got for little Tommy.  But I just don't understand who would want to read about that...why share that information with the rest of the world?  If I wanted to talk about the new kind of cereal that I tried this morning or which level the treadmill was at during my workout-for god-knows-what-reason...therapy maybe-then I could just purchase a nice little journal; one with flowers and butterflies on the cover that's lined with lace and other frilly shit (sounds like a piece of lingerie).  I'm getting off track.  My point is that, blogging is not meant to be private; people who BLOG do it to be seen and heard.

My Mom keeps telling me that she has been giving my blog address to "everybody."  Well, what does that mean...that my first grade teacher is reading this thing?  Well what does my first grade teacher think of me when I use the word FUCK or PENIS?  Huh, Mrs. Bailey?  Blogs don't have privacy settings or locked profiles like Facebook.  Should I be concerned with censoring myself?

I also think that a significant factor about blogging is that one such "blogger" is able to see how many viewers have been on their site (or the technological savvy term, "hits").  My friend Jordan wrote an interesting post about this.  He said that,

"For a very long time my family were the only viewers.  I started sending shameless plugs to friends.  Reader numbers increased.  This is when everything changed.  Then I started posting links whenever I made an appearance at an online function or gathering.  Reader numbers increased.  Now I watch my stat counts like a girl watches the phone hoping johnny football star will call."

Sure it's nice to know that people are actually reading your blog, but the strange thing is that ANYBODY can be reading.  When you think it's just your friends and family, it's not.  It's strangers too.  So what do strangers think about what I have to say?  They could be harsh critics like me, or they could really relate to what they read.  I mean shit, the chick that wrote the screenplay for "Juno" was discovered from her BLOG and she is now famous and making millions.  People work lifetimes for opportunities like that!  The internet can do wonders for people yet it is also shared by the creeps, pedophiles, and stalkers that lurk in the deep-dark-underground-depths of chat rooms and internet porn.

It wasn't until nytimes.com wrote an article called "So You Want to Be a Blogging Star?" that justified some of my thoughts about blogging.  Read the article, it's good.  If you are too lazy, here are some quotes that I think sum up the main points of the article:

"whether a person blogs to make a little money, to influence opinion or just for sheer ego gratification, amassing a large audience is the goal"

"write about what you want to write about, in your own voice...blog about your passions.  Don't blog about what you think your audience wants.  Post because you have something you are dying to write about"

"the hurdle that stops many would-be bloggers is fear of clicking the 'Publish' button.  'Don't bottle up your ideas forever believing you have hit the same kind of mature, complete, perfect point as you would with a magazine or newspaper article...blogs are always in progress'"

I haven't come to any concrete conclusions about any of this.  In fact, I don't really think there needs to be any answers, but it's fun to think about and it's even more entertaining to really dive into the blog world and browse all of the different types that are out there.