Hello? Anyone Out There?

So yesterday I printed out some of my blog posts and gave them to my mother to read.


After a while I asked her what she thought. She said she didn’t know what I expected. I explained that I was just wondering what she thought of what she had just read. She explained that she enjoyed my writing style and thought I was funny. But, she didn’t understand the point of a blog. Not just mine, but blogs in general. Why do people write them she wanted to know.

So I thought about that. Why am I writing this blog. As far as I know, nobody is reading it. So I am writing it for myself, but why?

I guess it is a form of catharsis to just write things down. And while the concept of a traditional journal is wonderfully nostalgic and stirs up images of sitting in a comfy chair, by the fire, with a blanket wrapped around me, my dog by my side and a hot cup of tea on the table nearby, well that just isn’t real life and not terribly convenient.

With a traditional journal, the whole point is the allure of the privacy; you can write down your deepest, darkest thoughts, and they are all yours (provided you don’t have siblings or nosy parents). With a blog, you give up some of that privacy, although it is possible to maintain anonymity by using a pen name. But I think part of the allure of a blog is that anyone CAN read it. It is out there. Maybe someone will read it and relate to it. Maybe someone will read it and share a comment that makes you smile, or gives you a greater depth of insight into something.

It’s a funny thing to think about as I type this. Would I prefer to be anonymous so I can write anything I want? Or would I prefer to have hundreds or thousands of people reading this? I need to think on this a bit.