So, having recently become obsessed with Tumblr, joining this site, and just reading a lot more blogs in general, I started wondering WHY people both write and read blogs. Do we write because we are all just narcissists who finally have a way to feed that desire for attention? We spill our self-centered guts to the world because we need someone to listen to us for a while? Do we read because we want to laugh at the silly people who post petty problems and can't get their life together? But not all blogging is like that, is it? There are the people who blog about nice recipes, or good books that they have read, and there are people who DO have actual problems, and are asking for help in the only way they feel they can. It all comes back to that wanting of attention, though. We want people to read and appreciate the things that we have written, and somehow, that will make us feel better about ourselves afterward.
And maybe a little bit of narcissism isn't so bad, it's what (in part) drives garage bands and amateur actors to do their best; they want to be known for something, and not just known for annoying their neighbours with loud choruses and practicing overly dramatic scenes in the middle of the night. Or maybe what at first comes across as narcissism is actually a desire to put ourselves in a position in which we can help others. Those who blog have a type of passion, and it doesn't make a difference whether it's about being upset with your parents because they just don't understand, wanting lots and lots of people to read Fahrenheit 451, or musing over whether or not unicorns exist (they do); it's passion that drives these people. The same passion that drives musicians, actors, and philanthropists; it's a passion for getting your ideas out to the world, and the internet has made that easier than ever.
I understand this ended up being more about why I think people write blogs than why we read them, but i'm not really sure of that answer. Maybe we are looking to feel a connection that we can't find at home, a common interest that doesn't seem to exist in the real world. Maybe we are trying to find the hurt and lost, trying to help as many as we can. Or maybe we just want a good laugh every now and then.
I don't know if this has all been said before, i'm not even sure how much of it made sense, but whose really going to read it anyway?
