Okay, so I'm changing #93 to Kak's suggestion...
Learn to make bah-nah-nah bread.
What is the point of having a blog anyway? I am in the process of weaning myself off of Facebook for awhile and that has got me thinking about all the ways I am connected to other people via the internet. Hands down, my favorite thing about Facebook is the photo albums. I like sharing my pictures and looking at other people's albums. Also I like playing WordTwist, which is like the online game TextTwist except you get to play against your friends and I'm competitive so I like that. But right up there with the practical perks of photo sharing and game playing is the fact that I love the status update. Because I want someone to care about me and what I'm doing or how I'm feeling or what kind of day I'm having.
Really, I think it's the same thing with blogging. Why do people blog? People don't blog for themselves... that's called journaling. You know, with a pen filling up pages that nobody else reads until you're dead. People blog because they want other people to read what they write and find it interesting and valuable.
To completely overanalyze all of this, I propose that most internet communication (aside from email which can be likened to the ancient art of writing a letter... although a sad substitute for it... but I won't get on my soapbox)-- Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, blogs-- is really a desperate cry for community. When we post in our Facebook status that we are having a bad day, what we are really saying is, "Someone care about me!"
The injustice of the situation is that it only propagates our culture of increasingly isolated lives. While we lament to our friends via Twitter that we are having the worst day of the century, we ignore our co-worker in the next cubicle. Instead of building relationships with the real flesh-and-bones people surrounding us in any given day, we choose to exist as an internet persona. Is this because being somewhat vulnerable and authentic with those around us is too frightening? What on earth are we afraid of?
I could probably go on endlessly, but I've been up since WAY too early this morning and I'm going to bed.
I have a true fondness for the blogging community I'm a part of (especially because of people like Jules), but now I'm just questioning my motives. I could just say, "I'm cutting out blogging altogether!" but I think that would be silly because I enjoy it very much. But I'm not going to let it be something I hide behind. Every time I feel like updating my Facebook status, I think I'm just going to call someone I consider a friend to talk.
6 comments:
I think blogging can be done in combination for yourself and for others. You can make your blog as "other" oriented as you want.
Facebook is much more "self" oriented. While I enjoy being able to have organized photo albums and such, facebook usually ends up frustrating me. It is frustrating to see old friends distancing themselves. It is frustrating, and hurtful, to see status updates from people you used to know who are sharing with the world their disgust with nearly all newlyweds.
While facebook theoretically should be a greater "community" because you know the people you're friends with, I find this is not the case. I find more community with bloggers because I can find people with similar interests and are in similar life situations. I can't even find people like that in my new small town (i.e. for me I have no community here, no matter who I try to befriend. I have sadly found more community in an online world).
I do agree with you that internet definitely can lead to increased isolation, but I also wanted to highlight that internet can also facilitate communication and "human contact" some people, myself included, don't have much of in their current situations.
Anyway, those are just some rambled, messy reflections I had while reading your post. For what it's worth, I'm glad you won't be stopping blogging. I truly enjoy your posts, especially posts that are raw and real and encourage deeper introspection.
I'm proud of you for #93. Your Nana is proud of you, too.
Think about this--WWJT--what would Jesus Twitter? If you think about it, it probably would be about others, not himself. Good insight on the lonely person in the next cube. I'm guilty of that.
As soon I kill a mouse.
Oops -- I was going to say that I was going to visit the person in the cubicle but somehow the mouse got to my keyboard and hit send before I finished.
I just stumbled on your blog and I couldn't agree with you more about the facebook cry for help. The difference for me is that blogging has helped me get back into my "writing" and I am also doing it to have almost like a planner for my working out etc... If someone just so happens to find my blog all the power to you, haha. I feel in blogging people feel they can relate to other who may not reveal as much of their struggles in person but as a way of letting it out. I don't know if that even makes sense but I totally agree that in some cases we have become isolated too much!!!!
I was literally just thinking about the exact same thing today! I was thinking, I haven't blogged in AGES. But its because I'm going through so much, I just don't want to "burden" other people with it. How silly is that!?
Facebook is starting to get a little too much for me. I had people on there as "friends" from high school who I never really spoke to. Just so that I can prove I made it in life? How lame. But I do enjoy sharing pictures and life updates with people who I don't get to see as often as I'd like for distance reasons!
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