Tuesday, July 27, 2010

To Quote a Friend: "A Blog, About Blogs"

Okay, okay. I know I just now posted, but whilst doing so a thought came into my head that I don't feel like saving to share later. It's small, coarse and perhaps endearing enough to be suspicious, but that's everything a blog post should be, right? Which brings me right into the matter at hand.
Blogs are such an interesting format for people to be channeling their thoughts into. Blogs are seemingly uncommon and-of-the-way enough that when we write in them we are confident that readers and friends won't venture from the downtown of facebook and texting far enough to reach the suburbs where our blogs reside and so we take on a certain amount of intimacy and sincerity with our reader (which we are sure will never come), that we lack in our status updates and photo comments.
Yet we have not wholly forgotten that we are on the internet for heavens sake, we do not go so far as to cross the threshold into diary land (at least not most of us) and it is this which makes blogs so wonderfully different from so many other writing outlets. The idea that someone might, that someone conceivably could search out or stumble across our stash of harvested thoughts, it is this which gives us the feeling of obligation to keep our posts coherent, somewhat relevant and organized. It is also this possibility that keeps us posting and attempting to keep our posts fresh, interesting, and intelligent. It's exciting to wonder who our ghost audience might be and to try and prompt them into giving comments and starting discussion.
Yep, blogs sure are crazy. I think what it comes down to is that we humans like to be peeked in on. We actually kind of want people to see us somewhat exposed, and for many people, their blog is a window, through which they bring to light, perhaps not their deepest and darkest,but certainly many of their more abstruse thoughts, hoping a few people might be spying in on them.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I definitely want people to see me somewhat exposed. Seriously, I'm not making a joke. I think it's natural to want to connect with someone on a deeper, more intimate level - even if it's a one-way connection, about intellectual matters.

    ReplyDelete
  2. a mushi mushi for the blog-drop! I did read the whole thing, and I agree with pat, this is where I get my frustration out, and if people see it, then well, good for them.

    ReplyDelete
  3. When I started my blog back up again, I promised myself that I would allow myself to write totally freely and have no sort of standards for editing or grammar, but then I realized I just can't do that and I have to adhere to some sort of organized format.

    ReplyDelete