I can’t do any productive work at home – be it studying or recreational stuff like blog posts. There are just too many distractions on this computer. There is the relatively fast internet connections and RAM speed (relative to work) and all the programs that I have on it – torrent loaders and music etc. not a really condusive environment for creative thinking.
Anyway, because I couldn’t blog yesterday, I’ll fill in today’s quota with an extra special post. It’s a post about why I/people blog. Ok, so it’s not that extra special but it might turn out to be. You’ll just have to read on and find out!
Why? Reason #1
I was thinking about this the other day and I guess the main reason I blog is because I want to write a diary but I’m too lazy to actually put pen to paper. I’d rather type. Better I get sore fingertips than hard calluses on my middle finger. And I do enough writing (or I will do) at college / university. It’s not the superficial aspect of calluses that annoys me but it really hurts and it’s tender and sore; and you don’t really appreciate the use of the side of your middle finger until you can’t use it any more. Like… trying to write something important. Ok, so that wasn’t the best simile in the world but you get my drift.
Plus with pen and paper there’s the issue of storage. I did keep a diary once and I wrote all my innermost secrets and feelings etc. all the usual mumbo jumbo that you’ll find between the covers of an adolescent teenager’s diary. I was quite happy with it. But then I ran out of pages. I wanted to buy a new one. Problem: where to keep the old one? I didn’t want anyone to find it – anyone being mum and dad (no siblings. More about that later). Mostly private boy stuff and details about crushes and embarrassingly cutesy things. Anyway, I didn’t want to throw it away and I was so paranoid that I didn’t even buy a new one for fear that if they found the old diary (jinkies!), that they would also find the new one (double jinkies!)! So that was the end of the diary era.
Yes, yes. I know an online freely-accessible blog is no private hiding place but since the diary thing I just really don’t care what people think about what I think. First of all they can’t really do anything about what I write, like if it offends them. “OMG Sara. You wrote such mean things about me! You’re gonna pay!”
“O…k. What are you gonna do?”
“I’m gonna show it to…um. I’m gonna tell!”
“Ok.”
See, the threat of “telling” doesn’t work anymore. Nothing’s private nowadays with super surveillance and such. I seriously don’t bother what people are going to say about my blog because there are going to be those who like it and those who don’t. There is an example a few posts back where someone posted a comment and I got really riled up and replied and we had this comment war thing. I should had taken it as criticism in the lightest form but it touched a nerve but I guess the moral is that people have their own opinions and you can’t force your opinion on other people. I don’t write to persuade. I write to entertain and inform. There is a difference (I learned all that in English class).
Ok, I’m digressing... I must remember to cover that opinion thing at a later date, but now is neither the time nor the place for it. I’m in the middle of a post for goodness sake!
So where was I?
Why? Reason #2
I like pretty colours. In a diary you can’t really scrawl doodles all over the page because you can’t read the writing on it afterwards. I’m a fond fan of doodles and the incapacity of diaries to support ink-penned doodles annoyed me to no end. You’ll find my earlier works filled with weird doodles around the edges. Plus I’m not that great an artist (nope, not great at all) so what looks like a scribble is actually my rendering of my foot or a bird of something. So the artwork is lacking.
On the internet I can add pictures and mess with the colours and make people go “wow” with my superb html skills (I wish). It’s all quite simple and there are an infinite number of colours one can choose from. There is so much more to learn but it’s gradual and learning new stuff is always more enjoyable if you see your results first hand. Why? Reason #3
When I was keeping my diary, I never let it see the light of day, literally. No one but me saw it and that was only at night. It was private and personal and not just because of what was in it. I was afraid of what people might say. People who knew me. People I had written about and commented / criticized / satirized. It was a personal danger that hovered over my pretty little head. Now I have an audience of infinite proportions. And to say the least, the posts are considerably less personal but if you knew me well enough you wouldn’t need three guesses to figure out who a certain post was aimed at. I think at least 2 posts are targeted to specific people. I wasn’t mad enough to put their names down but heaven mark the day that I do. All fury will be unleashed. But that’s not today.
Today, I enjoy the pleasant anonymity of receiving comments from people half way around the world. I like an audience who have no clue who I am but still enjoy the words I write. It’s like an affirmation that I actually have a personality. Two thumbs up!
Why? Reason #4
I can write any where and anytime I want, provided I have a computer. My html formatting is not overly complex and I can write the tags easily from memory although I do get help from various html tutorials.
No more remembering topics to discuss till late at night and putting a strain on my already maxed out brain power. It’s much calmer this way.
Why? Reason #5
Ok, there is a teeny tiny bit of arrogance in writing a blog. I call it arrogance because you are writing an article, a personal article and you expect people to read it. Even though the author may say that if no one reads it, it’s ok, but then why put it up on the internet in the first place? Why not just save it as a word file and store it away on your hard drive? Because of the swelling of the ego that comes with letting the world (the world. You heard right. This is the internet for Pete’s sake. It’s huge!) know what you think. It’s like the shortcut to being heard – like Ghandi with a loudspeaker. I bet if Ghandi were around in this era he’d have a blog and a website and several online petitions as well as a few chain mails to spite the government. But that’s the point. Nowadays anyone can be heard. And you can hear them. You just need the right address to go to. If you have your own blog, you’ll know what I’m talking about. There is only so much you can do with pen and paper and lonely so long you can hide it. You could hide a diary online too – some of my friends lock their blogs – but I think that kind of defeats the purpose.
I enjoy blogs. The freedom to express. The colours. The pictures. The html fun you can have. The global response. It’s all appreciated, thank you.
I don’t and won’t apologise for any posts by the way. I know some bloggers say that if you don’t like my posts, don’t read. This may be out of desperation for more readers of something but even if you don’t like my posts, please read. It never helps to be closed-minded and if you let me know what you think about me or my blog, in a way that helps me too. Take the good with the bad with a pinch of salt.
By blogging I keep my sanity. I have so many ideas that haunt my brain, I need to let them out.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all your reasons, especially using the pens and pencils; I dont think I can remember thatlast time I actually used one of those for writing stuff other than phone numbers !