Okay. So I decided to write something little, something small whenever I feel like it. Isn’t that really what writing is all about? I mean, writing doesn’t really move mountains, or solve the economic crisis. You may try to hit someone hard with words, but a baseball bat is better. A few years ago, I saw a big cow eat an entire book. Didn’t make the creature any wiser. She was still standing, tied to a pole, the last I remember.
So then, why do I bother to write these blogs? But more intriguing a question than that, why do some people read other people’s blogs? I mean don’t students just hate assigned readings and teachers hate grading essays? How many students will have their grandmothers die multiple deaths rather than admit they just didn’t do it or teachers invent departmental meetings to avoid contact with the written word in the form of student papers?
So why would you read the ramblings of someone you don’t even know leave alone stand to gain something from?
Now that got me thinking.
Ironically, what got me thinking was reading your blogs.
So here I am, jotting down a few ideas about why we’re reading and writing blogs.
The return of the common person: I mean hadn’t the common person all but disappeared from the printed word? There used to be a whole hierarchy of agents, publishers, newspapers, protocol, cultural privilege, access–all that is gone. The common person can express herself/ himself through blogs that others can read.
Capturing a moment or a thought: We can catch apparently inconsequential little things in blogs in a way we couldn’t before. They used to be lost but now people actually put them down and have pictures to go with them. They all add up to our awareness of the moment, don’t they?
Being able to relate: I know I can always relate to the boy/ girl next door far better than oh! you oracle on the mountaintop. I was never one for meritocracy in the field of writing. Or any “ocracy” for that matter. Moments, life experiences, thoughts happen to everyone. Those at the top of the writing ladder are not necessarily the ones I can relate to as I do with folks in the blogs simply putting down their thoughts.
Getting advice: If I’m thinking of decorating a wall or buying shoes, I’d rather ask someone like myself rather than Martha Stewart. I mean, I’d do that too but I’d like some affirmation from my friendly bloggers. If I have a paper due tomorrow and I haven’t even started it, I’d rather get advice from people like myself rather than those book authors who probably had their lives planned the day they were born.
Helping me become a better writer: Ahh, just browsing through some blogs helps me feel like I’m in the company of others who value writing. As that value becomes rarer and rarer in the outside world, here’s a room full of people who enjoy writing.
I just like browsing though blogs because I feel like I’m immersing myself in ephemeral thoughts of myriad voices of passing people. I was tired of the loud, booming voices of books and factual essays all around me that had lost the ephemeral quality of life.
To make a point, to achieve a goal is necessary to live but to live, to experience, is life.
People’s blogs, for me, is life.
[This is an old post from May 24, 2012.]
bottledworder 
I agree with the points you are making. I am new at blogging and tend to visit blogs to get to know the “feel” of other’s blogging styles. But often I leave, having been given food for thought and ending up amused, informed or moved. Love it!
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Being “in the company of others who value writing”–oh yes.
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These are some of the same reasons I come back to the keyboard consistently. It’s like teaching when I taught, although I don’t get a paycheck. I makes me a better professional and for the one person out there….that is why I started and why I remain.
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I feel like you’ve read my mind on why I read blogs. The feeling of connecting with others like myself, the feeling of finding that I’m not the only one out there who whatevers, the feeling of being able to relate to other people who may be more advanced along the writing journey than I am, the feeling that I can sample a myriad of other voices that can only enrich my own experience …. All of those, you captured, and I hadn’t even thought it out myself at all, before. I read blogs because, um, yeah, because. Thank you for finding the words I didn’t even realize were missing. 🙂
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I relate to the reasons you have listed, and think the desire to feel and be connected can’t be underestimated, in this age of disconnect.
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Well-stated. I like the honesty of blogs. I’ve also enjoyed the interaction with people through comments on my blogs and on their blogs. It’s also so much more fun than the assigned reading from university days 🙂
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What a well thought out piece and I think you capture the reasoning behind what a lot of us do. Personally I just love writing and connecting with anyone else who shares that passion. Others’ stories are usually pretty interesting and an insight into what makes us all tic….
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It’s a way to feel connected to one another in our world of disconnect.
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Yes, to all the reasons above, and one more… I love it when I write about my experience and others chime in with their similar memories and experiences…And I realise that I’m part of the universal flow of life… and it also it feels like a coffee morning with everyone chatting and sharing their lives !!!
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great post and you described exactly the reasons why I blog except one–my blog is neat and pretty and all mine and no one can come in an mess it up–if they do I just edit them out
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I totally agree!
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We all yearn for a connection from like minded invidiuals. We may not care too much about numbers, having so and so many followers. But, we do hope in our hearts that our words reach someone, mean something and holds value just like blogs we search through hundreds and hundreds of posts to find mean the world to us. It’s all about connections. Caring. Otherwise we would be perfectly happy and content to write on pieces of paper and never post it online.
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Exactly 🙂 You’ve nailed it – why we read. I love to read blogs because I’m able to hear a spectrum of voices, dip my toe in styles and opinions, go aha and oh no, pick up a nugget of gold and maybe shed a tear of sorrow. It’s reaching out and allowing others in. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday morning.
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its either read blogs and write- or watch american idol !
🙂
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I live history – mot the facts and figures,but the “real” lives of people, both fiction and non-fiction. When I came across seven and a half years of letters written by family members during and prior to WWII, blogging gives me the opportunity to share these stories with the world. It gives me a format to introduce these exceptional writers to people who never would have known they existed. Blogging also helps me build a platform for all of the books I will write about this “Slice of Life.” The letters tell the story of an ordinary family, trying to live an ordinary life, during a very trying time in their lives against the backdrop of a World War. This is the story of my family, but it is also the story of families around the world who faced the same emotions, hardships and losses during this time frame. The emotions are universal and blogging gives me the chance to meet and dialog with others who enjoy this as well.
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Blogging allows those with the gift of insight and beauty to share with the world! I love seeing the world through the eyes of others!
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Couldn’t have said it better myself. Word lovers unite!
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Well, you’ve covered all of my reasons for keeping a blog and reading other people’s blogs!
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It was a new post to me; I started blogging about 2 months later.
But how ordinary are bloggers? Some I have come across are quite remarkable.
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I think it’s the connection we are looking for and it’s so convenient and easy to reach out, and be received. Like this! Good post.
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