How I Really Feel About This Blogging Business
Ultimately, this little “project” has spawned from a lack of having anything better to do at work. In spite of my general hatred/possible misunderstanding (???— I’ll come back to this) of blogs, it seemed like a decent way to pass the time and to collect a sort of collage of my various interests and aesthetic tastes… On the internet, for the whole world to see. My problem here isn’t in the collage— it’s nice to be able to look back at things that once struck you as beautiful or interesting or hilarious, if for no other reason than to watch your tastes change and evolve. That bit is fair enough. It’s the public part that I have a problem with. It somehow seems to turn this exercise of personal reflection into an incredibly narcissistic one, declaring that your taste, that this collection things you deem worthy of re-blogging, is somehow so important/fabulous/unique that it requires an internet domain and a hoard of followers. It seems to tout something along the lines of, “I’m awesome, this is a collection of things that are also awesome, and if you stand any chance of also being awesome, you should pay close attention and follow me.”
On the other hand, it’s also possible that blogging is a declaration of insecurity, a plea for approval in which “followers” is synonymous with “friends”— a validation of taste rather than an assertion of such.
And then there are those who post upwards of 90% original material on their blog. This is great, really. I would love to have pages of pages of original poetry or short stories or whatever to share (and the internet is a pretty solid medium for sharing that sort of thing). Unfortunately, I’m not that talented… Or at least not talented in that way (though, sorry guys, a lot of the aforementioned bloggers aren’t necessarily talented in that way either…). I guess all I’m trying to say here is that originality > narcissism > insecurity as far as blogging goes. But if you’re going to be original, be creative; if you’re going to be narcissistic, have good taste; and if you’re going to be insecure, please don’t be too annoying about it.
I would like to think there are other options, but that’s what I’ve come up with for now. I would like to not silently loathe myself for creating a tumblr, but at this point in time, I feel pretty silly about this whole thing.
