Oh, the futility of it all: A metaphor for life, a cheeful note
I’ve been thinking about doing a blog for a long time, but haven’t for a number of reasons. So I decided I would spend my first entry describing those reasons in detail to you, the lucky reader. And it is appropriate that “reader” is not plural. You can see the excitement, the brilliant insight, the logic, the emotion… the wonder.
The humility. Anyway, I’m sure I am not the first or last to comment on the meaning of blogs. This fact is a microcosm demonstrating the fact that everything I say, think, write, and do has already been done. Actually, looking back, I just saw that my usage of the word “microcosm” does not actually fit the word’s meaning. But I’m glad I did that, because it demonstrates another point that I want to make. In a blog every stupid thing you think and write about is posted for everyone to see. In essence, technology provides the means for proving on a grand scale just how stupid you really are. (reference every other blog)
And so, in creating a blog, I think the selection of an audience is crucial… or at least the audience that is allowed to know your identity. There seems to be something of a paradox here. The smaller your audience, the less point there seems to be in posting “profound” thoughts or stories on the web. For an audience of a few, perhaps direct human interaction, or emails where that is not possible, is a better usage of time. However, as the audience grows, the less intimately you can describe yourself or account your experiences. For example, consider how much your average college student would be limited to sharing of themselves if they knew their conservative grandmother read their blog.
Furthermore, the whole act of blogging seems very self-centered. Perhaps I’m using examples of poor blogs to justify all of my concerns, but I have certainly read many blogs where somebody talked about their day and felt absolute apathy. I feel two different things at these moments. 1) I feel slight guilt for judging someone who simply innocently posted that they had a turkey sandwich for lunch. 2) I am bothered that the person would have the great audacity to assume that they are so important that everybody on the world wide web would want to read that they had a turkey sandwich for lunch. (*I want to note here that I know people who write online journals as diaries, with the intention that nobody reads them. There is a chance that one of these people could read this entry of mine. But this addendum kind of supports the argument of the previous paragraph.)
Then there are the practical reasons I didn’t get around to doing a blog. Knowing myself, it is likely only something I will only get around to updating every few months. The entries will be long and cumbersome to read, and to write.
But I’m writing… because a couple of people actually mentioned writing a blog to me recently in an eerily short proximity of time. Two people whom I would very much like to share stuff with. Also, I think the mental exercise of it is very good. And I know there are others, but let’s face it, reasons explaining why I AM doing something I am doing just aren’t as edgy. Although, the reasons NOT to do something I am doing which I just wrote over a page about just seems stupid now that I think about it. (validating one of my previous observations) Without evolving any further into a stream of consciousness argument with myself, I’m going stop.
Thanks for reading, I hope you like this entry, but if not… I guess it just proves my point.
The humility. Anyway, I’m sure I am not the first or last to comment on the meaning of blogs. This fact is a microcosm demonstrating the fact that everything I say, think, write, and do has already been done. Actually, looking back, I just saw that my usage of the word “microcosm” does not actually fit the word’s meaning. But I’m glad I did that, because it demonstrates another point that I want to make. In a blog every stupid thing you think and write about is posted for everyone to see. In essence, technology provides the means for proving on a grand scale just how stupid you really are. (reference every other blog)
And so, in creating a blog, I think the selection of an audience is crucial… or at least the audience that is allowed to know your identity. There seems to be something of a paradox here. The smaller your audience, the less point there seems to be in posting “profound” thoughts or stories on the web. For an audience of a few, perhaps direct human interaction, or emails where that is not possible, is a better usage of time. However, as the audience grows, the less intimately you can describe yourself or account your experiences. For example, consider how much your average college student would be limited to sharing of themselves if they knew their conservative grandmother read their blog.
Furthermore, the whole act of blogging seems very self-centered. Perhaps I’m using examples of poor blogs to justify all of my concerns, but I have certainly read many blogs where somebody talked about their day and felt absolute apathy. I feel two different things at these moments. 1) I feel slight guilt for judging someone who simply innocently posted that they had a turkey sandwich for lunch. 2) I am bothered that the person would have the great audacity to assume that they are so important that everybody on the world wide web would want to read that they had a turkey sandwich for lunch. (*I want to note here that I know people who write online journals as diaries, with the intention that nobody reads them. There is a chance that one of these people could read this entry of mine. But this addendum kind of supports the argument of the previous paragraph.)
Then there are the practical reasons I didn’t get around to doing a blog. Knowing myself, it is likely only something I will only get around to updating every few months. The entries will be long and cumbersome to read, and to write.
But I’m writing… because a couple of people actually mentioned writing a blog to me recently in an eerily short proximity of time. Two people whom I would very much like to share stuff with. Also, I think the mental exercise of it is very good. And I know there are others, but let’s face it, reasons explaining why I AM doing something I am doing just aren’t as edgy. Although, the reasons NOT to do something I am doing which I just wrote over a page about just seems stupid now that I think about it. (validating one of my previous observations) Without evolving any further into a stream of consciousness argument with myself, I’m going stop.
Thanks for reading, I hope you like this entry, but if not… I guess it just proves my point.