Simple Question for You Bloggers:
Why do you blog?
I first really started paying more attention to blogs during the 2004 run-up to the Election. And listening to Hugh Hewitt during the week following the 60 Minutes RatherGate scandal (on President Bush's national guard record), it was quite fascinating. Stories like that, Eason Jordan of CNN, Christmas in Cambodia...I heard all of this on Hugh Hewitt first, sometimes a week before the mainstream media sludgingly would come around to acknowledging that there is a story there to be reported on. So through talk radio (which I've been wanting to do a post on for some time now as well), and Hugh Hewitt's "rapid response radio" specifically, I discovered the blogosphere. It is a great addition to news dissemination, opinion journalism, and just plain venting your feelings and interpretation of the news around you, and across the globe.
I know some bloggers see themselves as citizen journalists. I don't see myself as such. I'm just a regular joe, expressing his thoughts and feelings to anyone caring to listen. Primarily though, I write for myself and to opine on the articles and topics I come across that interests me. What are your thoughts?
Labels: blogosphere, Personal
posted by The WordSmith from Nantucket at 3/29/2006 06:47:00 AM
14 Comments:
I have found that people I work with have no interest whatsoever in my opinion. By publishing a blog, I can express my opinion and anyone who wants to know my opinion can visit and read it for themselves, and comment, or argue, and anyone who doesnt want to know, or care about my opinion can leave it alone.
At one time, I thought I could change some people's minds. I can't, so I quit trying.
Well, LOL... I read blogs for a long, long time before I ever started one. I really don't have a whole lot to say, LOL, so I never bothered to start a blog till August of last year. At that time, one of my all-time favorite milbloggers, American Soldier (www.soldierlife.com) was publishing a book. He sent out an email to all those who commented regularly on his blog and/or had email correspondence with him sometime in the past, asking that we post something aboutit on our blogs if we had blogs, and/or email our friends about his new book coming out. SO, I started Yikes! purely as a means of getting the word out about american soldier's book! LOL Since then, I've kept posting, mostly about "support the troops" stuff, and it has been extremely handy when organizing my card collection drives for my adopted soldiers! :)
so, I blog because it is a good way to help rally support for our troops! :)
It was Terri Schiavo's case that got me started blogging.
Although I made comments on blogs and discussion boards well before then, I never felt compelled to have my own space.
I never planned to keep my blog going. It was just kind of an experiment.
Now, it's like a home. I would miss it if I stopped. It's my place, my thoughts, my territory.
I'm not unfairly censored or violated the way I had been on certain political discussion boards that I frequented.
It was like claiming my space on the Internet frontier.
It's freedom -- thus the name of my blog.
I started blogging when I found myself on the road for extended periods of time. TV was mind-numbing and boring. Not being a party-goer nor a bar hopper and hearing a lot about blogging, I thought I would give it a try.
You do meet lots of people online with the same (and not so same!) opinions. It is fun & informative until some troll comes in with his s**t.
All in all, it's both fun and work to stay informed about the issues of the day. And yes, it's not all serious either. Once in a while, you have to post something, well, interesting!
Hooray for regular Joes!!!
Also, I read in a readers digest about a guy that started a blog and it became so popular he put in a "tip jar". He has since made a fortune! I thought, "just maybe..."
LOL! Unfortunately, there aren't enough people who want to hear my opinion for me to make anything off of it. I think I'd have to have more than 100-150 visitors a day to accomplish that.
Like Mark, it's a place to put my opinion out there. I don't seem to be able to make any headway with the liberals who surround me. Also like mark, when I first started I thought I could change some people's minds, and tried an open debate on my blog. That didn't work; the liberals just became ungly and insulting. I even ended up having to ban a few of them.
I am amazed at the number of people who read and don't comment. It's possible we may be changing some minds without knowing it. Even one would make it worth it.
I have made many internet friends while blogging (like you, for instance, and Mark) and I enjoy that discourse too. Even when we may disagree on an issue, we still remain respectful.
Good idea for a post! :)
Please excuse typos. Someday I will learn to preview before I print! Sheesh!
I have been obsessed with politics and current events for years now. But guess what? Most of my friends weren't. I actually have influenced and educated my friends but they only want to hear you rant on your soap box occasionally, not every day :-).
I love discussing politics and being able to express my opinion without holding back. I had no clue about blogs until my friend said I needed one. She actually set it up for me, gave me a name and everything. At first I felt like I needed to spend hours writing to put up a post. But then I realized I could make it as short or as long as I wanted and it was less intimidating.
Now it is very easy to just sit down and write. I mostly write for myself but I'm a social person so I really enjoy interacting with others. Blogging is such an awesome outlet for me because I get to write, talk about politics and socialize all at the same time :-))).
Hey--I think I was commenting over here while you were commenting on my blog. Very funny.
I just read your post over at Flopping Aces that Mike was talking about. It was awesome and I will probably link to it in my part 3.
I appreciated your comments on my post.
I didn't want my girls having all the fun with Xanga. I tried there first, but it wawsn't any fun because it's all kids there. (maybe not all kids, but...) Now I have an outlet for my opinion and there are actually people out there willing to read it and comment on it! It's great! I love reading them, too!
I had to snatch that funny pic!! Hilarious!! (LOL)
It was after the election for me...but I kept hearing about Blogs...One day in a magazine there was an article on the free sites, etc. So I went researching.
I think what keeps me going is I love my friends online and I look forward to expressing what is on my mind...getting it out to someone that may want to listen is a plus.
Like Mark, no one else seems to want to hear my opinions. (LOL)
EXCELLENT POST...I enjoyed it.
skye...you do those two things very well.
Thanks for humoring me with the insight into what drives you to blog, folks. You all have interesting stories.
I'm a lot like you. I tell my friends and my buddies at work, and even my family about my blog, and they don't seem to have enough time to care.
Sometimes I feel like just quitting my writing, but then I realize that even if nobody else read it, it would still be worth it to me, because not only does it help me solidify my thoughts, but makes me research and stretch and and either defend my opinions or recognize them as defective.
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