Sunday, November 14, 2010

This Entry Brought to You by the Letter "WHY"

So...remember how I bribed y'all with baked goods if you participated in, and successfully completed, NaBloPoMo?

I had a few takers. YAY!

One of the takers, my friend, Matt, hadn't actually blogged before even though he had the domain and everything all ready to go. Apparently, anything for baked goods.

Now, a word (or several) about Matt. Matt is KICK ASS, y'all. Not only does he know how to work my phone, he also makes his own Crazier than Batman hot sauce which is so yummy, he's got folks clamoring for it before each batch has time to set. He also does stuff like drive me around when I'm drunk and totally picks up the phone when I'm THAT girl...drunk and crying over my aching heart and then says "Eh, no big thing" when I apologize profusely the next day.

Srsly. He's that guy who, 20 years ago, I would have totally taken that solemn blood oath to marry at 40 if neither of us had found someone else to marry us. You know, because at 18, marriage seemed like it was the be all end all of existence and if you weren't married at 40, you might as well be dead? Yeah that. Now that we are almost 40, I am comfortable in saying that we adore each other, have no designs on each other, and are content, I think, to keep each other's drunken, crying company...usually over Johnson's Corner cinnamon rolls...without the marriage certificate. I <3 him. A lot.

Plus, he referred to me as his "blog-mistress" in a post AND he has a shirt that says "I shaved my balls for this?" What is not to love about that?

There is a point to this that matches the title. Really.

Alright, so a few days back, he posted a blog entry asking people why they blog rather than, say, use the "Notes" feature in Facebook to record their thoughts. The lovely and talented modchen dot com, aka Bete Noire, aka BFF neighbor, responded with a post on her own blog answering his question. Then she put the question to her readers.

And I agree with so many of their various reasons for blogging as opposed to Facebook's - ahem - platform for sharing.

Here are some other reasons I have for blogging - specifically here:

1) I'd been blogging for 5 years before starting this blog. Up until a year or so ago, my blog was just for me to record stuff...my whatever stuff. And then people started liking my stuff. More and more I was getting friend requests from people I didn't know and on that shall-remain-unnamed-platform, the security features - being able to lock posts down - while robust, weren't quite robust enough to keep my unfiltered crap away from the eyes of the masses. So I came here. To write for other people. To filter out my "oh-my-gawd-Ricky-Schroeder-is-so-cute-and-if-I-saw-him-in-the-flesh-I-would-probably-just-just-just-DIE!" posts, my humdrum let-me-tell-you-how-many-calories-I-ate-today posts, and to attempt to keep you all entertained.

2) I have 180-ish friends on Facebook. I either know them or have known them all in real life - with the exception of a couple. While I do post almost every link to each entry on Facebook, the point of blogging, for me, isn't to talk to the friends I already talk to but to also talk to people I don't know. To network. To write for strangers. To get better at writing for strangers who don't know what my real life voice sounds like. Given that I have roughly 300+ semi-regular readers (holy shit! how the hell did THAT happen?!) and only 180-ish Facebook friends, I'm thinking I've actually been doing something somewhat right.

3) Facebook's "Notes" platform is severely limited in the formatting department. I try to post pictures, video, links, etc. where and when I can here. There, it's nigh impossible to do what I want to do. As far as I know, even Inverted Sky's "Really Simple Song of the Week" tool doesn't work over there.

4) I love having a place that is distinctly me. Facebook isn't distinctly me. It isn't my living room. It's the foyer at a large theater where loads of people are chattering about their own stuff. Here, people have to work extra (you know, click a link or navigate to a favorite or search for me) to get here. And they come here (mostly) because they want to come here.

So, that's why I blog. Why do you? Comment and tell me or, as modchen says, ping me back and direct me to your own blog for your answer.

By the way, here's an interesting related blog post over on BlogHer about bloggers who stop blogging.


A year ago: Thanks for the Suggestion

5 comments:

nakedjen said...

I am so going to answer this question. Because I am asked it a lot. Plus, I'm asked why I post naked pictures of myself, a lot. And I'm also asked how I ever expect to get a JOB when I post naked pictures and blog?!? So, yeah. I think I'll answer this.

Smoo...

Just Jane said...

I'll be looking for it, Jen. PS Don't stop taking and posting the naked pictures. They are what inspire me to also be naked!

Matt said...

Heh, wow, thanks Jane!

One point.... I did have a blog, there at acr0nym.com before.... I just averaged, umm, 1 post about every 1.75 years. :)

zero hour said...

"I blog because I am".. or was that on a t-shirt I saw?
Anyway I blog cuz I needed an outlet for my comics during the syndication process,and cuz all the comic books I appeared in were canceled. You know us crazy cartoonists,we always need an audience, since our lot is an isolated one.
My blog has evolved into a 'whatever I feel like" kinda blog now,but I'm trying to get it back to more comics content.
so yeah..there's THAT....and the promise of ..umm cupcakes! tee hee

modchen said...

you're so much nicer to your readers than i am. i make 'em read every little squee that comes into my head. ^_^

insightful as always. and you're very good at writing for strangers, yes.