Read an interesting blog post today in Jeremy Gould’s whitehallwebby.com where he is talking about the £120k/yr post of Director of Digital Engagement. Jeremy has just moved to Ireland and he’s been blogging about Ryan Tubridy‘s (an Irish DJ/chatshow host) accusations of bloggers being narcissistic and vain. (Btw, as Jeremy says, a DJ/chatshow host accusing people of being narcisistic and vain? Puh-leese!) This has got me pondering why do people blog?
One of my first encounters with Euan Semple the penny dropped for me: Write yourself into existence. I still stand by that motto. Of course it’s about the writing but blogging for me is about connecting to people. I have made friends and contacts via my blog, but my blogging doesn’t end at itiswhatever.com. It is extended to my Flickr, Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter etc accounts. It amuses me at how people are blogging in these guises yet they ridicule bloggers of for whatever reasons.
Someone at PwC recently said to me that blogging was for people with massive egos. I can’t speak for everyone who has a blog but I would count myself as a pretty regular guy. I grew up in the countryside and have good family values. I think I am pretty grounded. I like to play music. I like to write. Some might view all that as having a massive ego. To be perfectly honest I struggle with the definition of the term. If it means refers to that organized part of the personality structure which includes defensive, perceptual, intellectual-cognitive, and executive functions then I would say that mine is “normal sized”.
Another PwC colleague questioned the value of a blog. I asked him if he had not got anything to say. He replied “No”. I guess that answers that. Just as music is best enjoyed when it has an audience, so too are words. The thing about a blog is that those words get feedback and interaction which you can then interact with.
Blogging is not just about having something to say it’s about connecting with people. When I see my mother leave the church on a Sunday I see the equivalent of ‘analogue’ blogging. Instead of walking straight out to the car she acknowledges people and exchanges updates. Some updates she doesn’t mind who hears, other updates she is a bit more discrete (that would be an email).
In 1996 David Bowie wrote “nothing is vanity nothing’s too slow”. I like that world. Vanity seems such a vulgar way of living yet it was Oscar Wilde’s “favourite sin”. Wilde said “Nothing makes one so vain as being told one is a sinner. Conscience makes egotists of us all.” Yes Oscar. I would have loved to have read your blog but since I can’t I’ll continue to follow Stephen Fry on Twitter. As well as blog of course.
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