Why do people blog???

Actual Conversation I just had with my mother tonight :

Mom: Hey you know that family function I just went to in remote village in India , third cousin XYZ , she came and told me she reads your blog and that you write well.
Me: WHAT!!! Third cousin XYZ knows I maintain a blog ? she read my blog ? how ? why ? what …. Darn!!!!! ( don’t get me wrong third cousin XYZ is a cool gal, i’ve spoken to her a few times , but I’ve never kept in touch after leaving India and there wasn’t anyway she would know of my whereabouts let alone blog.... though I’m happy she read it and said nice things about it to my mom).
ME: So how did she know I have a blog ?
Mom: Your friend who’s her friend showed it to her.
Me: Oh!!! (I didn’t even think my friend read the blog , well now I know….)
Me: Yea ,Mummy I try to keep this blog impersonal , just write general stuff..
Mom : Yea , don’t give out personal info , like your name and stuff….
Me : (Thinking) Ooops!!!
Me: (also thinking): Ok not only have I scared away a sizeable number of people with my ideas, my relatives also know about it!!! …my poor parents …no no not poor parents …they have a daughter who maintains a decent blog . .they should be proud!!!

Incidentally, my parents can’t read this blog at home , some internet firewall problem . I’m sure they wouldn’t mind the stuff I put in , but I’m sure I would get some comments about keeping my opinions to myself , also I doubt if I would write about soul mates if I knew my dad was reading this!!

What Wikipedia says about personal blogs
In common speech, the term blog is often used to describe an online diary or journal, such as LiveJournal which was one of the earliest uses of blogs. The blog format allows inexperienced computer users to make diary entries with ease. People blog poems, prose, illicit thoughts, complaints, daily experiences, and more, often allowing others to contribute. In 2001, mainstream awareness of online diaries increased dramatically.
Online diaries are part of the daily lives of many teenagers and college students. Friends use blogs to communicate with each other, keeping each other up-to-date with events and thoughts in a non-intrusive manner. The appeal of this form of communication is that the recipient can read whenever it is convenient, and the writer does not need to remember who still needs to be updated with certain pieces of information - it is there, waiting, for whenever people wish to read it.

And I had a similar conversation with my friends earlier this evening . So what makes people blog… write about happenings in their life , how they view the world and everyday events, for everyone with an internet connection with a remote interest to see…
The way I see it . ....these are the reasons I blog ….
I didn’t join the blogging bandwagon for a long while , I felt I wouldn’t have anything remotely interesting to write , in retrospect I wish I had , would have been to nice to maintain a blog while I was in New Zealand, my earlier blog was a personal one I wasn’t too worried about that one . I honestly didn’t expect anyone apart from parents ,sibling and a few well meaning friends to read it ,served as a personal journal of sorts and yes I did go on occasional personal rants, mom used to read it , I wonder if she knew what I was talking about …

Cut to the new blog … the way I see it people have so much to say ..but you don’t find people who are willing to listen ..so you frame your thoughts as a journal entry just to send out to the universe , however as it happens the only people out there in the universe interested in reading the entry would be people somehow connected to you …so the stuff you are quite comfortable sending out to the universe gets read by folks you would probably think four times before saying the same thing to , sounds like a contradiction doesn’t it … .

I guess primarily I do it for myself , to brush up my writing skills, like a hobby I like doing , sometimes to write about something I’m honestly interested about that I would no way bring up in normal conversation ..(refer soul mate entry)!! If I get feedback its good because I know other like minded people exist and that I’m not the only one . Designing the layout ,links list, thinking up templates…. just the fact of owning your own bit of cyberspace is appealing ….


I also appreciate the comments, the fact that people read and give feedback on what I write is more than icing on the cake ...definitely keeps me writing ….

While I stick by pretty much all I write, I think without ever having spoken to me making character assessments based on what I have posted online is not the way to go … however if you have serious disagreements with what I post (can anyone have serious disagreements with the stuff I post??) then I agree, I probably would not get along well with you … the same way if you totally agree with the stuff I write ( can anyone totally agree with what I write ???) , unless I know you from some other place as well….. I don’t foresee us becoming best friends.


Maybe I’m blowing things out of proportion, I read the blogs my friends maintain …. For me reading their blog entry is just like having an online discussion … holds no more depth than that .. so I guess in retrospect I guess should feel glad that cousin XYZ took the time to read my few lines penned out for the universe, and thought it good enough to tell my mother about it …and anyway I shouldn’t worry about friends and relatives reading this blog ..What about the people I surely wouldn’t want to read stuff about me ? For all you bloggers and other online type people here are some safety hints:
Safety Hints for Bloggers

please no comments about the link, but it seemed like one of the better ones, the author says such things happen rarely, but yeah she tells us to be a bit careful while posting.....