Readership

Someone recently asked me about my reasons for writing a blog. Was I honing my writing skills? (Absolutely) Looking to find fame and fortune on the internet? (Yes, please) or promoting some product or service? (Not that I know of)

They expressed great concern and discomfort about the fact that I was opening up some pretty emotionally charged areas of my personal life to very public scrutiny. They said, without a doubt, that they themselves could not do what I, and so many other bloggers do.

I don’t know if I’m brave, stupid, naive or some kind of combination of the three, but I don’t have any particular feeling towards my readership. In fact, I’m only really concerned with more eyeballs reading the site, regardless of who they are.

Sure, I follow all the blog caveats: don’t trash your employer; don’t hate on your family/friends (if they read your blog); etc. But my inspiration comes from within and I write for an idealized audience, the audience in my mind who laughs at all my jokes and draws inspiration from all my aphorisms.

I guess that doesn’t even come close to answering this mystery person’s question. I write of myself, by myself, for myself. I post to the internet via my blog so that my experiences become part of the shared experience we call life. That’s really hokey and Jungian, but I think it really does hold water. If I can connect, through my writing, to one person, the experiment has succeeded.

Hell, even if I’m the only one who reads this, the chances of it surviving for posterity’s sake are far better than any paper diary.

2 thoughts on “Readership

  1. Perhaps it is the idea of equating weblogs with paper diaries that gives most people like your enigmatic interrogator (just dying to type that, 🙂 ) pause. I’ve never had a diary or journal before my weblog, so I guess people think that the same stuff goes into both. I sure hope not.

  2. Nathan Miller says:

    I think writing a weblog is way to keep tabs on the things we as humans consider real. The weblog has its major weak points, for example…you never know who will become victim to your daily ins and outs of life, a good logger will write with a general idea of who will be reading the post…yet, because you are at the mercy of the mass public…even the ‘King of Pop’ is part of you unimaginable audience…as a writer you should push for the most cut throat and razor blade sharp bits of life that only you feel are geniune to the reader and most important real, true to your soul,,,down to your toes…write with a feeling that comes when you are driving home and the sun is setting at just the right moment…like summer or the day you said ‘I love you’ to your wife….life is only a spark, only a spark. Glow, glow, glow…soon we may all be ash…

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