Why do we blog?

[cherydactyl]

pattimst3k, a newish LJ and now ftf friend, asks this in her blog. (It might as well be a meme...she got it from her friend. And they'll tell two friends, and they'll tell two friends, and so on and so on...)

Anyway, here's what I wrote on the subject, enhanced.

You might as well ask why do we talk?

To make connections, to keep up with people in what is presumed to be either a safer or more convenient way than-face-to-face interactions.

Blogs I read either have to be thematic, as opposed to personal grab-bags like mine is, or about someone I am trying to make or maintain a connection with. Vegan Lunch Box and KitchenChick come to mind as first-rate thematic examples. (I keep wondering about creating a special-purpose blog like that but haven't stumbled upon the correct mission for me to do such a thing. Yet.)

All the LJs I watch are because I want to get to know someone better, and make connections, or to maintain or enhance connections that were already there. There are people I used to see regularly in real life, whom I now see once in a blue moon, that I wouldn't know anything about their lives unless I had LJ. Which is kind of sad, but common in the busy lives people lead.

LJ is replacing dinner conversation and salon discussion. Or talk at gatherings of any kind: book groups, some aspects of wild parties, roleplaying games sessions, etc. I'd love to have a big party with all my lj-friends (especially the ones whom I don't know face to face at this point) but it is completely impractical if not impossible. Also, online communities are weird in that they enable us to have a close, or apparently close, connection with someone thousands of miles away whom we wouldn't recognize if we *did* pass them on the street, while we are simultaneously and willfully ignoring our next-door neighbors. Or maybe that person you just lj-friended actually is your neighbor, but claims to be from the other side of the continent. Or have a close connection with one aspect of a person only (you like their post on the RP comm, but you don't know about their posts in the pagan comm, or they have multiple journals, etc.); how weird is that? The first crush of thought-pr0n of reading a journal of someone you don't know but who commented on a post you saw...it feels a little secret but less creepy than using the binoculars to check out the couple across the way through their living room window. But it amounts to the same thing; you are checking people out who you might want to associate with. Following a thematic blog or community is like reading a newspaper, magazine, zine, or maybe just the letters to the editor page, to keep analogizing, and is generally more about ideas than the average personal blog, but it's still about communities of mind.

On teh intarnets, we can slice and dice community until we find a way of being in them that we can handle and like, without regard to geography or demographics, which is not entirely so offline. Or maybe it just seems that way. Sometimes it seems too hard to do in real life; sometimes the people you want to associate with and talk with are just not available in person, or maybe you just don't know that your neighbors shares your interests yet, and that you could make a connection if you tried.

Comments

[ka-crow.livejournal.com]

Many good points, and I'd add that for people with autism and other difficulties in synchronous, f2f, meatspace communication, the blog and specifically the LiveJournal have sometimes provided amazing opportunities for reaching out and being heard that simply wouldn't be there otherwise.

(There's also the "Help, I'm stuck in a remote area" blog: one of my regular commenters is in Sarnia, Ontario, which is even more gods-forsaken than Grand Forks, North Dakota, where I grew up. At least Grand Forks has a university and an Air Force base to ensure a regular influx of newbies and people who've had interesting experiences. Sarnia, not so much, apparently.)

I also love reading about physical communities, not just the daily lives of individuals (although of course one is made of the other), on other continents: what it's like to be part of a belly-dance troupe in Australia, for example.

[luvey.livejournal.com]

great points, but there are people who blog for the pure attention -a self absorbness. i remember when i first started on LJ there were too many blogggers out there who just screamed "friend me, friend me" along with the "rate me" requests. amoung those there were those who you had to jump through hoops to friend and they even mentioned they didn't read much on their friends list.

but when you find blogs centered around a theme, they tend to hold more conversation and interesting discussion on the topics (off the top i think of all the yoga blogs and communities). although even with the yoga blogs i find some splits between the ashtangis and everyone else - which i've written about.

blogging fits because in today's age it is harder and harder to meet people in real life that have the same interests. yes you can go to a yoga class and meet people, but the majority of time people are running out because of their next life appoinment they have made rather than savoiring it.

and yes i focus on yoga in writing this because...well it's what got us to friend each other. otherwise i don't think i would have stumbled on your blog.

[thecranewife.livejournal.com]

I love this and agree with many of your points. I'll do this in my blog soon.

[pattimst3k.livejournal.com]

I like thematic ones, too. I try to stick to the general teaching theme in mine, but as you can see, I don't always do too well at this!! :)
And I agree that there are some attention-whores out in the blogsphere...I was briefly on MySpace and that was pretty much the norm out there--at least IMO.
I agree Cheryl--I wish I could have a big LJ party, too...one the reasons that I like to throw dinner parties is to get people out of their homes and socializing. Now, getting people to actually show up can be difficult and frustrating, but I still like to do it....