Why blog?
Posted by susankmiller on June 2, 2007
I’ve been lurking on the edges of the blogosphere for far too long, and several things have finally converged in my life. It’s time to just jump in and blog.
I’m not sure why I’ve been so resistant to blogging. This blog post alone has taken me nearly 2 weeks to write. I start a draft, delete it, and then rewrite. Blogging has sometimes seemed self-indulgent to me, and perhaps even a bit pointless. I’ve wondered who actually reads blogs when there are so many out there. And there’s something about the confessional nature of the blog that I find unnerving…and I have a natural tendency toward being a slow, skeptical technology adopter.
Obviously, I also have a natural tendency against realizing the powerful potential of new technology, too. I guess imagination was never one of my strengths.
But I’m becoming increasingly aware of how mediated my life is, and as a writing and technology scholar, I want to have a space to reflect on my own use of technology. I’ve found the blogs of others to be helpful, too (cogdog and Shelley Rodrigo, in particular), and cogdog has successfully proselytized the importance of blogging…
So, here I am. I’ll give this a shot.
September 10th, 2007 at 12:24 am
You mean people actually read my drivel? I write solely for myself, and my handwriting is too sloppy for a journal
Seriously, my thoughts are that like making bread (of which I actually know nothing, but it feels like a great metaphor), it emerges as you work at it. I’m not convinced that blogging is a magic cure for what we do, but the whole “outboard brain” thing has worked, and I do it a lot for my own tracking of ideas and my so called work.
And mainly, it is the connections with others that sustain me, and not just the fact that sometimes people respond with comments, but the reciprocal act of commenting in other blogs is for me, and always under valued act.
See you out there