Tuesday, July 18, 2006

What is a blog?

If the diary is fundamentally about loneliness, is the blog all about changing that? Reaching out from loneliness and solitude in the hope of finding like-minded individulas who share a common interest or have a mutual understanding of one another?

One keeps a diary for several possible reasons, including:

1) The inability to converse in the topics one details within it.
2) Secrecy.
3) The lack of relationships or known people with whom one could offload.

Conversely, then, blogs, surely must be about:

1) The desire to exchange ideas and offer thoughts profusely.
2) The overt exposure of one's soul, moreover, to be an open book.
3) The seeking out of other people with whom one might find the ability to discuss ones personal life at length, without fear of being judged, or without being judged by anyone who matters.

Furthermore, after reading several blogs that I've stumbled across and some thoughts that I've scattered throughout my own, anonymity plays a very large part in the blogging culture.

I, for one, stuff my blog with personal thoughts, if you'll excuse the pun, with gay abandon. I'd include more if I thought no-one I knew read it. I'd include no personal information at all, and perhaps even give this up, if I thought my family had a handle on what I was up to here.

So, it seems, in blogs, as in in diaries, it remains: that sense of loneliness and isolation, dear reader. Blogging has the air of the confessional, though we're still careful about to whom we confess.

5 comments:

Minge said...

I think I blog to write down the things that make me feel strange about myself in the hope that other people will comment, saying, "I do that too," or "I think that way too," and I'll feel less weird. Strangely, though, I don't want to be normal, that's the last thing I want. I'd hate to be like everyone else in this dull world.

Anonymous said...

I think another reason for keeping a blog is a chance to unleash the frustrated writer in one.

Every now and then I feel inspired to write and instead of leaving to rot in a journal, pop it online and have people leave comments!

Minge said...

Very true.

Anonymous said...

I think sometimes you just need to go through the motions of telling/writing what's on your mind.
Plus, when you're drinking all weekend, it's a great way to actually sit down and remember all the little parts of your weekend, even if you don't actually include them all.

Does that make me a lousy drunk?

Minge said...

No, hen, it makes you fabulous.