kadyellebee

A list member said:

it seems to me that to blog is to hang one’s "laundry" for the world to see. as i stated previously, i find it embarrassing. and i cannot see where anyone would care what >I< have to say about my personal or professional life, either. most individuals are most concerned pretty much with themselves and feel that their life, problems, etc. are the most important.

Blogging is very different to different people. For some people, its a listing of their life and what they are doing; their stresses and sadnesses; and their joy and cheer. For others, its a way to show the places they like to visit - links, other blogs, etc. Some people have a combination of the two alternatives to have a personal journal of their life illustrated through where they visit on the internet. Luckily, not everyone is blogging to hang their "laundry" out for the world to see. Even though what you say may make it out to the public rather than just your friends, the public may not care. Your friends probably will, and may say so. I suppose it depends on your mindset, if you are doing it for yourself and just happen to allow the outside world to come in and see what you say OR if you are doing it to try and be popular and are only doing things to try and get attention from the public world. Those are two different mindsets, and it is obvious when you visit some blogs that the 2nd mindset
does show through frequently.

Its really weird because no matter how many times I have tried to keep a diary, I’ve always lost interest after the first week or so. But with a online journal, I have been able to document
what I am doing in my life and at the same time share how the online world effects it. Many people may think my journal is boring (and that doesn’t bother me), but I always know that I can go back and see what has happened and how I have changed over the last 8 months that I have done online journalling. It is more for me than others, but then there are other people who think of the idea of blogging in the same way as I do and visit me. That creates a community feeling among the bloggers
and gives a chance to search for other journals that have similar style to their writing or that you connect with in some way.

The list member also said:

isn’t this something just as easily accomplished via e-mail or even, if possible, phone calls? chats, too—via aim, icq, irc and more. we found a myriad of ways to communicate with the world before "blogging" became a catch-word.

The main pro over email or techniques to keep in touch with friends in the past is the ease of it all. If you have a group of 20 people that you want to keep in touch with and share your happenings, and feelings with, you can point them to your journal and say (completely made up for example purpose!),
*"hey, check out the new paint job that I gave my living room... it turned out perfect, just like Matt and Shari of Room by Room (link - http://www.hgtv.com/HGTV/show/0,1102,DEID_show_80,FF.html)
said it would!"
*And one of your friends might think that your paint job was SOOO cool that they want to share it with their other friends, and when one of their friends visited the link to the Room by Room site that you posted, they saw a perfect idea for making a slipcover for their diningroom chairs and posted instructions on how to do it so that when they had time in a week, they could try it out.
*And then, one of their good friends who was reading their journal decided to tell the story of the time they tried to recover their chairs and the dog and baby decided to run into the house at that moment and trapse mud all over their new chairs.
*And then, in your search for a blog that talked about having babies, you could have found that very post and decided that no, it wasn’t time for you to have a baby, and not even realize that the whole thread of conversation was brought on by your paint job pictures.

It’s that interactivity that makes the tasks of journalling, and searching for other peoples journals to read, and having the opportunity to share in the lifes of people that you woulnd’t otherwise meet, and having a chance to visit sites that you never would have thought to look for all a great part of having a webpage and a journal. Its something that many webpages out didn’t have the opportunity to give until the blogging trend started.

And its an amazing circle that blogging creates - I had someone download a graphics set quite a while back for use on their wedding page. This particular graphic set had a blogging template, and
she questioned me on how to use it. So now, we started out our conversations because she was interested in my graphics, but she ended up wanting to blog. She got herself set up, and now, she has decided that her wedding and personal page should be expanded, bought a domain, and has a very creative personal journal (by profession, she’s a very good writer), and a delightful wedding blog to post the updates for her wedding plans. What amazing growth she’s had since the first linkware
set she downloaded not that many months ago! I now count her as one of my good friends and read what’s happening in her life every day on her journal, and it helps us keep in touch in a way we’d never be able to keep up with in just email because with busy lifes, we simply don’t have the time, and would have never developed this friendship. And I have countless stories like that.

So now, I’ve written this whole long book, and I doubt any of you are still reading, but listmember’s question really got me to thinking, and I thought I better share my feelings!!!

If I wasn’t clear on something, let me know and I’ll try again LOL!