To Blog or not to Blog: Is that the question?

Our guest blogger from the north is back. Here's some thoughts from Mr. Blue (my dad).

I’ve decided to dedicate this blog to the question of why we blog. I did a quick Wikipedia lookup and according to the great and powerful Wiki there are a few hundred million blogs out there. A few hundred million. As in 200,000,000. As in, two blogs for every three Americans (though, in fact, I don’t know if that 200 million number is national or global; but no matter). But however you look at it, that’s a lot of blogging, and putting that kind of number to it makes it (at least in my opinion) even more of a really good question. Why the heck do we blog?

So rather than try to figure out why other people do it, I’ll just start with myself (since I’m the one asking it, and since I always seem to find that no matter how much of an individual I am, I’m never very alone in the way I feel about things). So why am I blogging? Good question! And the answer? Probably a mish mosh of reasons

• Because I always wanted to be a writer. Yes, the cat’s out of the bag. I always wanted to be a writer. Well there’s a shocker! And I guess I’m the only one of those 200,000,000 that fall into that category? Probably not.

• Because I don’t really have much in the way of friends to talk to? Wow, that sounds pretty lonely, doesn’t it? But again, I know that I’m not alone in feeling this way so I’m guessing that lots of bloggers out there, many-friended or no-friended, feel (at least some of the time) that they don’t have anyone they can talk to (even if maybe they do), or maybe just feel that they have some things that they want to get off their chest but don’t want the immediate feedback. True confessions time: I started a blog a while back that I didn’t tell anyone about. I figured it was a place I could say whatever I wanted and feel like someone was listening without worrying about hurting anyone’s feelings (or whatever). But it wasn’t all that satisfying and I ended up giving up on it.

• Because I wanted to be part of Mrs. Blue’s blog because I thought it was a really good blog and because I thought it would be fun to share something with Mrs. Blue (since we don’t get to share much in the real world outside the blogosphere). Well that’s a pretty specific blog need, but it certainly has merit.

• Because I’m just shouting out ‘Hey look at me, everybody!’ Well that’s a pretty cynical little thought, but one I can’t help having. And I apply this idea to literally everyone who is putting themselves out there for our view; performers, artists, etc., etc. I’m not sure how much merit this idea has. Again, I think it’s mostly the cynic in me shining through.

Well okay. Now in the time that I started this post a couple of weeks ago (yeah, can you believe that’s a couple of week’s worth of writing? I can’t.) Mrs. Blue has added a post and she has shed some of her own light on this very topic. Take a look at the intro to her latest installment:

“Sometimes I sit around blog hopping on the internet and I think, "wow, so and so is super cool"! And while there are many great bloggers leading awesome existences, I take care to remind myself that I could be cool if I got back to my own blog and start writing. So, here I am with some updates on my interactions with the world.”

I get from this that she’s just super into blogs, and not just the writing part. She spends time surfing the blogger world (kind of interesting that in one installment she moved from figurative surfing to literal surfing, isn’t it?). She learns about the world through blogs. She shares with the world through blogs. The blogosphere is a part of her world much as sleeping is part of mine.

Hmmm, well that’s got nothing whatsoever with my reasons, and I guess it just goes to show you that, like everything else, it pretty much depends on where you’re coming from, and maybe there are 200 million different answers to the question of why we blog.

And I guess that gets me to the end of a blog; with half of an answer to a half-baked question. I’ll try to get a little further away from all the introspective stuff and back to a more experiencal based blog on my next attempt (assuming Mrs. Blue gives me another shot at it after this fiasco). There’s a big centennial celebration coming up, and that might be worth a good blog. ‘Til then, keep heart, the next post on this blog is bound to be one of Mrs. Blue’s, and a lot more interesting than this one.