Recently, I’ve had a few people ask me why I write this blog. Of course, there’s no one definitive answer I can give. But just the asking of the question has made me sit back and ponder, what’s this all about? Why do I sit down at my computer a few times a week and type some words for the world to see? What was my outlet before this forum existed (or did I even have one?). Here’s what I’ve come up with.
I am a writer.
It’s what I do. Just about everything I do involves writing on one level or another. I write proposals to land new business for our company. I write strategies for our clients. I write content for web sites, videos, and TV shows. I write press releases, communications plans and marketing materials when I’m called on to do so. I write because that’s how I make my living. And considering I almost flunked out of English in the 11th grade, I guess maybe I write because I was told for so long that I wasn’t any good at it. Not a day goes by where I’m not writing. If I wasn’t able to write, I don’t really know what else I would do. My point is, this blog is a way that I can explore writing on my terms. No editors, except me. No clients to please. It’s what I want to write, when I want to write it.
I am amazed that this even exists.
In 1996, my older brother showed me the Internet for the first time. He brought me into the computer room, sat me down, and showed me a page of black text on a grey background. I wasn’t overly impressed. Then he told me that what I was looking at was actually sitting on a computer somewhere in Germany. It’s the first time in my life that I can remember being truly in awe about technology. 12 years later, I am still in awe. I’ve been able to carve out a little space here, where I can yammer on and share what’s inside my head with anyone who will take the time to listen. I’ve met and become friends with people from around the world. I can talk with anyone, anywhere, at anytime with the click of a button. The Internet continues to amaze me, and I’m grateful to have the opportunity to be part of it.
I like communities.
My first real industry job was as a producer at a local community access TV station. The content on the station was created mostly volunteers. My job was to facilitate the productions, and to coach and guide the volunteers in the technical and content aspects of their shows. The real stars of the show were the people from the community who created them. Social media shares so many similarities with community access TV. What we were creating back then was user generated content. The station was accessible to anyone who wanted to participate. There were the content creators, who developed and produced the shows, and there were the participants, who would leave their comments on the viewer response line or phone in during a live show. In the social media world, there are the content creators – the bloggers, video bloggers, Twitterers, YouTubers, Facebookers…and there are the participants – who comment and share their thoughts. Sure, the line is a bit more blurred in the social media world, but that’s a good thing. If you ask me, it’s an even stronger community because everyone here is creating and sharing and participating and learning. I blog because I have always been amazed at what communities are capable of. I embrace community, and this blog is one way I can do that.
What about you?
Those are just some of the reasons I reach out every week through this blog. To the people who take the time to stop by here, I hope that what I write is of value to you. I think everyone has different motivations for blogging. What are yours?
9 Comments
hey Susan,
I remember meeting with you a few years ago about my film and you told me about this online reality you are passionate about and now I get it. Exploring your blog this morning feels like the ultimate Christmas present, like one of those Russian dolls that keep opening up to reveal another one inside. The comments also resonate so deeply for me… having a voice, not conforming to anyone else’s vision, self publishing with a sexy not home made edge, the lonely nature of writing,, how trying to get published is a complete pain in the ass… self publishing!
This is the ultimate paradigm shift, egalitarian reality. Well sortof, it’s still that one percent of us with the resources who are able to do it but it’s better than miniscule percentage that it was.
I love my blog. To be able to share my vision and ideals and anything but linear process and to be able to add a visual component to the story the whole design element is so exciting and used to be relegated to the publishing side but now it’s all integrated. I have even started to incorporate video which is awesome and a little challenging cause it’s so bossy so I need to feel how to meld it all.
Being of a very introspective and extroverted nature I am delighted by visitors to my blog. I have only been live for about 6 weeks and have had 1724 visitors and that doesn’t include me checking how many so far.
What delights me the most is that traditionally it has taken a long time to change culture but this is like a time warp, a friend once explained calculus as accelerating rates of something to do with an intersection of something else in a way they can articulate… but it just sounded so magical and so does the web. That of all things this is bringing community into our lives though this time self selected not relegated to our caste, at least if one is of this one percent who can actually afford a computer and is literate with one…
And my hope is that we will care enough to use our power for good. Your blog is a great example of this. In one of your posts you were writing about authenticity as the only valuable online currency though you said it differently but that’s the gist I got and what a world we might be living in if authenticity were de rigueur…
But maybe what I love most about blogging is that intense fear I feel when I press enter on something really risky which is how I feel about just about everything I post. It’s like staring down at my fate from the high board at foothills pool in Alberta knowing I was doomed to a free fall into a very very deep pool that I sometimes had fantasies of whales delighting in that’s how deep it was and not knowing for sure for sure that I would make it up for air again… like now as I hit enter…
I blog because I can write about anything the way I want to and can say what I want to. I have a business/technology blog, and my motivation for keeping it current is to make sure I keep my first page Google standing when you search my expertise.
I use a widget, Feedjit, and am always surprised by how people from all over the world find my blog.
Love this post–I do it for the same reasons as you do.
I read a post yesterday that speaks to this and also to your post on scrambling (love it!):
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/theweb/magazine/16-11/st_essay
I hate the idea that all blogging is good for is vaulting you up the Google or Technorati rankings. I couldn’t care less if nobody reads my blogs (for a long time nobody did, and for the most part, barely any do now).
[…] Why I Blog […]
Hey Sue,
Loved reading this post.
I also blog because I love to write, specifically because writing forces me to think absolutely clearly. Also, it’s hard work to do a well thought-out, linked up, value-adding post – and that’s partly why it feels so good.
After 8 years of blogging, I still have no idea why I do it or what motivates me from one post to the next. I really can’t figure it out, so I just do it out of habit now.
Past, Present and Future.
The past is powerful. The Future is now. Put a camera in front of you and what most want to share with the world is likely your Purpose. I believe if more people figure this out sooner in life, we will have greater brilliance among all.
I blog for most of the same reasons. I started working up in this piece a couple of years ago and my coworkers were in awe that I, a web developer by trade, didn’t have some kind of personal website. I figured I should get one in a hurry.
I’m not a professional writer, evident in my informal style and excessive use of expetive but I quite enjoy writing, particularly with that bratty yet somehow informed voice. I’m also a lunatic for crappy movies and know a lot more about them than any one man should. It just makes sense. Somehow I’ve managed to scam more free stuff out of the deal than I ever would have imagined.
Most importantly, though, I’ve tried many times over the years to become an actual published writer and it’s a complete pain in the ass. The dance that you have to do with gate keeping editors at this or that publication is just not worth the trouble. Not when you can spend a few bucks on a domain and hosting and set up your own shop, thus becoming your own editor. I think that everyone has something worthwhile to say. It’s up to them to get into a groove and actually say it. Blog platforms make it so stupid easy that there is no reason that everyone can’t be expressing themselves without someone in charge telling them that there isn’t a story there or that no one will read what they have to write.
What’s most important these days with bloggery is that the power is now in our hands. It’s up to us to make it happen and get the word out about ourselves. I certainly did.
I think I’m very much like you in this respect.
I’ve loved writing ever since I can recall – as a kid at junior and high school I’d be writing stories (some got published in the school magazine, woot!).
I carried that on after school, in that I wrote poems, stories, song lyrics, etc, until it made sense to become a freelance writer.
I think the reason I blog is two-fold – to share whatever knowledge I may have to whoever feels it’s interesting, and to receive new information back from peers and contemporaries.
And as a writer yourself, you’ll know how lonely it can get sat behind a desk and computer screen, so the interaction of the blogging and social media community as a whole makes it all worthwhile. 🙂