Blogging in General

Question: Why do humans blog? Answer: I don't know.

I love reading other people's blogs- in the recent film Julie and Julia, the character blogs about her 365 days of cooking from Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking book. I have a friend who blogs about riding the bus every day. The seemingly mundane details of our existence to us may seem ordinary, but when a person blogs about them become ironic, meaningful, and just plain funny.

I know of a woman who spends all day reading her children's blogs- what they and their children are up to, viewing recent pictures and videos, and feeling so connected to them that she doesn't feel like she's missing anything. Is this good? Yes. And no. She's online enough to feel connected to her progeny, and so much so that she's missing her own life. A conundrum! Where is the balance? I don't know. And then what about spending tons of time online when you're the one blogging, like me right now? I just spent a good amount of time getting this blog started, and now I should be getting ready for work but I'm blogging instead.

Psychologists will tout the benefits of journal writing; how it helps people to decompress and that it is good to work things out by writing about them. When you think about it, that's all blogging is. If a person spends an hour a day writing in their journal, that would be a good thing. The only thing different than doing that and blogging is that when it's online you can add pictures, video, and share it with others and receive their comments. Sure you can just call them up on the phone, but seeing a new post from someone on their blog is something akin to the excitement of getting a personal letter in your mailbox. It's a tidy little unexpected gift of sarcasm, wit and poignant details about that person's life.