Every now and then, I ask myself, why blog?
Some bloggers have a great expertise in one area and can make great contributions by adding their insights to current affairs. When I have a burning need to learn more about out-sourcing, I can go to Dan or when I have to find out the size of John Kerry’s penis, there’s Wonkette. I have some expertise in a few areas (not those areas), but I’m too lazy to contribute. I have also already undermined any mantle of expertise by relating one personal misfortune and mishap after another.
Some bloggers host great discussions in their comment sections, like Crooked Timber, and others are driven by strong political passions. I admire the hard work of those blogs, but I don’t have the time or the attention span to spend on those efforts.
Me? I just like to write. Sometimes I get in a tizzy about a particular topic, which keeps me going for a week or so. Sometimes I’m just telling a story.
Last month ago, I was interviewed by the Chicago Tribune and the Wall Street Journal about blogging. And they asked me all sorts of questions about my blog, which stumped me.
Who is your audience? I dunno. My husband?
Why is your blog called Apt. 11d? Um, because I live there. Actually, I had a really pretentious reason for calling it that, but as I started explaining it to the reporter, my voice sort of trailed off. It really sounded stupid as I was explaining it.
I hope no one ever asks me why my blog is called 11d. See, it actually means nothing. Maybe it’s Barbie’s bra size.
Then the reporter from the WSJ asked me questions about blogging trying to get me to give him good soundbite about the blogosphere resembling a townhall meeting. And I said it was, but it wasn’t. I waffled on. I think I even gave him a long quote from Hannah Arendt. Needless to say, I wasn’t included in those articles. I give lousy soundbite. But after replaying every stupid thing I said over and over, I have rehearsed all sorts of smart things to say in the future. The blogosphere IS a townhall meeting.
The problem with having a blog without a clear objective or purpose or even a meaningful title, is that sometimes, like tonight, I have no clue what to write about.
And then there’s the question that buzzes around in my head from time to time… If I’m not contributing the greater good in some way by doing this and I’m certainly not earning any money at it, why do it?
Apt. 11d 
But at least you have the discipline to actually sit down and write about the fact that you have nothing to write about. Good for you!
I think, when you get right down to it, the reason I gave up the old blog and began a new one was because I wasn’t sure any longer where I was going (or where I wanted to go) with blogging, or how I wanted to get there, and I wanted a space which reflected that ambiguity. I’m sure a lot of us bloggers have fiddled around with many other sorts of writing and communicating over the years: diaries, journals, bulletin boards, e-mail lists, good old-fashioned letters, whatever. We desire (self-)expression, but perhaps not obsessively; so rather than becoming truly dedicated writers of one sort or another, we end up experimenting with this or that, trying to find the right balance. Blogging fills this desire nicely exactly because it is so vague and open-ended, a weird mix of news and private memos and creative writing and confession and scholarship, with varying degrees of insularity and publicness. Perhaps academics and journalists have especially taken to blogs exactly because they have to do so much writing, but aren’t for the most part ever truly settled or comfortable with the sort of writing they may be professionally obliged to do. Hence, blogging as a way to fill in our personal, random gaps. Of course, maybe as the blogosphere becomes more and more well-defined and its internal dynamics more predictable, a lot of that vagueness will disappear, and blogging will start having various obligations and expectations attached to it. In which case, maybe at some point those of us who most fundamentally are just dilletants will move one to yet something else.
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See, I don’t think so. I think there will always be room for vagueness and open-ended-ness (not a word, that) in blogging/journaling/what have you. That’s the whole point, isn’t it? That the medium is what you make of it.
To me it’s a bit like putting out holiday lights in your yard. Some people create gigantic circus-like exhibits with music and rotating Santas. Some put up two or three strings and call it a day. There’s no reason they do it or have to do it, it doesn’t serve any Great Purpose, but it does add something interesting to their lives and the lives of anyone who happens by.
Blogging’s different in that some of it does serve the Great Purpose of an alternative news source (not sure I can fit that into the analogy), but most of us out here are just stringing lights and waiting for people to drive by.
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I’ve got to agree with emjaybee — there are some fine, useful, informative blogs out there of all stripes and those folks are to be praised. Go them!
However, I don’t have a blog like that. I just write about stuff.
Also, I bet if that Pepys guy knew he was going to wind up as a big-time primary source for his era, he’d have taken more care, talked about different stuff, and bitched less. Would this have made him more or less valuable as a source?
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You really answered your own question. You do it because you are a writer. And being a writer entails having an innate need to write and wanting an audience for your work.
A blog is merely a medium where these needs are met with an immediacy that no other medium can match (yet).
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Blogging scratches an itch for me that no one has mentioned yet: story-telling. Good Southern belle that I am (okay, I’m a bad belle), I come from a long — and I mean looooong — line of raconteurs. These genes demand that somewhat interesting events and encounters be massaged into something much more entertaining and then presented to all and sundry. And a blog does that beautifully.
In the heroic thumb-wrasslin’ match between self-expression and persuasion, I’m definitely on the side of the latter. I’ve never kept diaries or journals, but I love tellin’ people shit.
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I think anyone who can throw out in passing that 11D may be Barbie’s bra size does not need to justify herself any further.
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I guess the only reason to keep a blog is to have fun. When hanging up[ the Christmas lights becomes a chore, I’m going to stop.
I’m in between research projects, and that lack of direction is translating into a lack of direction on the blog, as well.
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You write because you like to AND – I suspect – because by now you know that your husband is not the only person reading your blog. In addition to writing, you likely also enjoy the interactions that come out of your blogging. I’ve maintained an announcement list (with a list of link recommendations) for years now (pre-blog) and sometimes ask myself the same question. I think I do it, because I figure at least some of these people are still on the list after a couple of years thanks to getting something out of it. And I’m happy if I can assist in people finding interesting information. I guess for someone in a teaching profession, the idea of enjoying the process of sharing interesting information should not be shocking.
Recently, I’ve been thinking about my blogging as well and decided to “restart” my original blog again and do more writing there than what I post on the group blog of which I am a member. I figure, some of the people who visit CT may not be interested in hearing that many details from me, but some of my friends may be and then I’d like to have a space to write random stuff when I feel like it.
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Interesting discussion. This seems to be the eternal question that bloggers ask themselves. I agree — there’s a certain sense of accomplishment that comes from putting thoughts together and writing; there’s also a hobby-esque sense of accomplishment (some build shelves and outdoor decks, some tell stories and comment on politics and personal life on blogs).
When this becomes a chore, yes stop. Also, when this takes over your life and your thinking (I know some bloggers who have lost many friends in the process of becoming obscessive over blogging), or when writing about politics (for example) takes more out of you than getting involved in politics (and takes time away from you effecting change in that or other arenas), less people are benefitting in my view. Many bloggers feel that now that they’ve commented on something, they’ve done something to effect change, if that was their original goal, and that thinking is seriously flawed.
For me personally, I’m still trying to figure out my age old dilemma of not being able to focus in my writing. But it’s nice that blogs allow for that, and even encourage non-focused types. And it allows me to share stories and opinions with others whom I know and others whom I’d never otherwise meet but have similar views or contribute to the shaping of my world-view.
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yes, I like to writing random things, telling stories, the conversation, the accomplishment of hitting the “post” button. All of those things. I also hope that some of my posts are rough drafts for a larger project. Last spring, my blog almost landed me a cool job. At different times, I have had different reasons for doing this.
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I think that part of the difficulty is that, like the web itself, blogging is very much in its incunabular state. And, as many have pointed out, it has become a space for many of us to experiment and be ourselves, or at least try to figure out who we might be at any given time. We may have to become comfortable with that vagueness before we can codify blogging, if that’s even something to be desired, eh, emjaybee? And I blog mainly to bitch; maybe that’s why no one reads it…
I enjoy writing, and I’m good at it occasionally, yet I find myself tired of traditional academic composition (even the word sounds stuffy). Being an academic myself, this is a bit scary. Yet, I find that my blog allows others to approach material that they might not otherwise feel comfortable approaching: the difference between going to an academic journal and doing a Google search. And my use of the blog shifts with my mood: sometimes I’m feeling academic, other times political, still others playful. My “professional” blog gives me an outlet for all of these moods, whereas most academic publications do not.
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Why? Because.
Scribblingwoman Has become a participant in the ongoing discussion about why one (especially if an academic) blogs. And she’s doing so with a part of her tenure dossier! I love how this act of hers subverts that rather isolating process….
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