On my daily sweep of what Alternet had to offer today, I came upon a rather elitist article about blogging, "Is Personal Blogging Fast-Fading?". The gist of the article was:
The golden age of the digital diarist may be over. Have we realized blogging isn't as fun as it sounds? Or that we're not so interesting after all?
As a long-time, successful blogger, I had to comment:
Simplistic and Misleading Article
This article would make a person who knew nothing about blogs believe that all blogs are either badly-written accounts of people's mundane daily lives or commercially driven generic blogs for the purposes of making money.
Both types of blogs exist in spades, of course, but people blog for a wide variety of reasons.
I've been blogging successfully for four years. The original blog was started as a theme blog; a platform to discuss my decidedly alternative approach to sexual ethics. It branched out into an eclectic mix of topics added to the original theme. This blog also has an extensive list of links for those interested in various types of non-monogamous sexual orientations.
I do not often write about the mundane details of my everyday life. My blog is primarily my personal op-ed page where I give my personal take on a wide variety of topics; mainly cultural and social issues, politics, religion, rants, and sex.
My goal is to make people think; to consider things in ways they might not have considered before. Whether or not they end up agreeing with me is beside the point; if they've stepped outside the box, even if just for a moment, then I've done my job.
I know I've done my job when I get emails from people who are struggling with their own non-monogamous leanings who say that my blog has helped them make better sense of things.
I've met lots of like-minded people while blogging, while also making friends with and gaining understanding of those who have a different view of the world.
A couple of blog posts about why I blog:
Making People Think
Blogging Is Its Own Reward
Your thoughts?
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1 comment:
I do feel that the Altnet poster had a point. I have noticed that a lot of the bloggers I used to read have ceased writing, which only leaves the die-hard people with a cause, such as yourself.
I'm not saying this is a bad thing either, the web could do with less inane drivel.
I still enjoy blogging and will carry on until the day I die, but within the blogging circles I now haunt, I don't see as many people signing up as there used to be, so perhaps it is a dying art.
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