Why Do You Blog?
  Photo credit: Foxtongue |
Maybe you’re like me. I blog just to talk. It’s hard to find a time and place for more than passing banter with work friends nowadays, and I don’t get out much. You wouldn’t think that someone who’s blogged about her ass-tastic hemorrhoids is a bit shy, but I can be rather quiet in person until I get to know you.
Aside from my full-time job, a *lot* of my spare time goes into my family, my younger daughter’s interests, reading, fiction writing, and the chores of daily life. Very few of my remaining hours are social: I don’t have parties or go to many of them, am not a dancer, and don’t go bar hopping. It’s not a bias against frivolity. Hell, I love me some frivolity. Middle age just feels like a time when I need to be — and want to be — focused on home life.
And that’s OK – I’m a happy homebody. But good grief, I completely enjoy friends when I get off my lazy butt and make the time. I wonder if a lot of other adults find that friends are placed on the “I’ll have more time someday” shelf.
For me, it’s not a matter of focusing on myself as if I were the pivot of the world. Mostly, I often feel overwhelmed by all that I want to do and have to do — so much so that I often don’t feel up to the task of sorting it out. (Anyone else in that same frame of mind? I’d like to just lie in bed and let a weekend pass me by.)
So you’d think I wouldn’t have time for being online, right? Weirdly enough, it fits right in with my “find 10 minutes here, find 20 minutes there” life. Blogging and particularly micro-blogging on Twitter fill in some of my social gaps, and it’s all delicious and enriching. Friends are still out there, listening and chatting and sympathizing and laughing with me. Even if I’m just darting in and out of their timelines.
What niche does blogging, Twittering, or other social media fill in your life? What parts does it stitch together for you?
Comments protected by Lucia's Linky Love.
10 comments
I blog because I wanted to set up my own server for business reasons, and blogging is a good way to show potential clients I can support their stuff. That and because most of the food critics in New Orleans are goofs and I think I do a better job.
YatPundits last blog post..Brother Martin High School Band
My blog is my vent that let’s out all the steam from a stressful full time job. Literally no boss to answer to, no one to second-guess decisions or to throw criticism when it’s too late. Just my own universe where anything (I say) goes. Outlet comes to mind : )
YatPundit, I like your business sense and your style! And now for a tangent … mmm, New Orleans food … you’re making my mouth water for oysters on the halfshell with lots of cocktail sauce, horseradish, Saltine crackers, and a cold beer. Is Felix’s still around? It’s been too many years since I enjoyed the food and fun of New Orleans. *sigh*
Hey, Bad Parent! I vent here too, and you’re right — it’s a huge relief sometimes just to lay out what’s bugging me and then move on with my life. Looks like you also enjoy the silliness of blogging as I do; I got a huge kick out of your Make Up Stuff About History post. Reminded me of my first husband’s dad, who once explained to him where wind came from: Hadn’t he noticed how the trees were thrashing around? :o)
Sometimes I wonder why I blog! It’s definitely not as big a priority to me as it was when I wasn’t working full-time. So often now, when it’s a choice of blogging or spending time with family or friends, blogging loses. But I do enjoy having a place to speak my mind when I have something to say.
Twitter, on the other hand, I cannot live without. It’s an ongoing running conversation with my widely scattered friends. I love it.
FaceSpace, meh. I’m on them, but they bore me.
SJs last blog post..Facing the mirror
Found your blog via Neil’s (Citizen of the Month).
Blogging has been the one hobby which I have been able to sustain since June, 2004. To me, my blogging time is time to relax, while trying to inform and entertain my handful of faithful readers. I also blog to keep my distant friends and relatives informed of what I am up to. I also consider my blog an archive of sorts of my life , my preoccupations, and of what’s going on around me. And, yes, at times, it does turn into an addiction.
I don’t “get” Twitter, so I don’t use it. I do have a Facebook page that I use mostly to keep in touch with ex-students of mine.
Hi, Elisabeth! Glad to meet you. Neil’s blog is irresistible, isn’t it? I enjoy reading smart, opinionated people’s work.
I agree with you about the life archive aspect of blogging. I was asking some friends online what to call the kind of blog I have here — a “me blog”? Several suggested “lifestreaming.” I kind of like that. I’ve been looking for some term to unify the purpose of this blog so I can explain it fairly succinctly, since mine isn’t solely mommy blogging, ranting, politicking, or joke-cracking. It’s really just … me!
What’s your blog’s URL? I’d love to check it out.
It reminds me to come up for air when writing this novel. And it’s a place to share photos.
Pearls last blog post..Musical Interludes
I blog because I love to write. I started blogging to distract myself from a very difficult car accident recovery. I’m still battling the recovery, but I’ve continued blogging primarily because it brings me a lot of joy.
I blog because I got too many rejection letters from editors and agents and decided to self-publish. My blog is my 21st century book that needs no third parties or paper presses.
Midlife is tough when you are alone. Most of my friends are still married and are too busy with hubby and home to go for a night out with their bitter divorced friend.
Leave a Comment