BLAH BLAH BLOG: Thoughts on Blogging

Blogs. What a weird phenomenon. Some people love them and others hate them. We've all heard this before: "Why do people feel the need to share their thoughts to the world? Nobody cares." Well, in reality, people are listening. And some people do care.

Blogs, I admit, are a bit strange. At least the concept. But they are here to stay. And I am blessed by a great many of them all the time. We live in a world of ideas and dialogue. The 21st Century is a place like never before where people from all walks of life can share ideas, learn new things, grow, and, yes, even argue sometimes.

I think Derrida is right: there isn't anything outside the text. Language is everything. And that means that dialogue is everything. Blogs are a wonderful way to do this.

That said, I wanted to share two thoughts about blogs and blogging. The first is that blogging is not always easy. Like any other hobby in life, there are tons of others who do it - and they probably do it "better" than you or me. So it is easy to think, "My blog sucks." Or, "I wish I could write a blog like so-and-so..." Or, "How the hell does so-and-so always have something to write about!?!" To think these thoughts is natural. After all, we're constantly fed lies about how great everyone else is. But we rarely get the behind the scenes look at how others struggle with writing or how other bloggers may feel the same way.

So #1: Don't be so hard on yourself. If you blog (or want to), just do it. Write. Share. Life is short.

The second thing I wanted to share was that not only writing blog posts can be difficult, but also reading. There are so many blogs out there that it can be overwhelming and frustrating to keep up. One second you're reading a post from one blog then another person has already posted an important response to the one you're reading! This gets me flustered all the time.

And on top of this, sometimes you might want to comment on a blog. If you've done this before then you know that once you comment on a post, you'll be glued to it for at least a day or two while you track the responses to your comment. You know it's true.

Trying to read tons of blog posts sporadically throughout the week can be chaotic. I often feel like I don't have time but I'm sucked into it and then I'm all sorts of disoriented and stressed. There's too much to read! I don't have time! I just wasted 2 hours!

Here's something I've discovered: Taking one morning a week (for me, it's Saturday) to catch up on blogs is a fun and easy way to read blogs. Sure, the downside is that I don't read everything as soon as it drops on the world wide web. But, the upside is that I can sit down with a big cup of coffee and slowly read, comment, and reflect in peace. I have found that this is a great discipline.

So #2 - Try setting aside some specific time to catch up on your favorite blogs. You might just find that it's a fun activity and it leaves you feeling productive and satisfied.