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Blogging As A Form Of Therapy
wellington writes "According to an AOL survey, blogs are more likely to deal with personal matters than politics or current events, and nearly 50% of bloggers see the activity as a form of therapy."
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Whew. I breathed half a sigh of relief when I read that.
John
Tue, Sept 20, 2005
Urge to kill growing.
Must paint town red with blood.
Sun is rising.
Hear birds singing.
Looking nice outside.
Ahh. just what I needed!
What a great day, better go to work!
Wed, Sept 21, 2005
Meter reader coming today.
Sweet flesh in my slow cooker.
Bread in breadmaker smells good.
Too good to taint with meter reader.
Mmm. Maybe I'll go to the store for some blueberry jam.
And a nice walk through the park while I'm at it!
What an awesome day!
Thur, Sept 22, 2005
They have no idea I'm watching them.
They're nothing more than scum to me.
To be decimated like germs.
Hrm.. hey Slashdot's new CSS looks nice!
Wait... argh! Still buggy!
Can't they do anything right?!
Must.. not.. hehe heh ehhhhhhh...
Today is the day I unleash my wrath
and appease my Dark Master...
Trolling is a art,
I think the article, like blogging, is a great big pile of crap.
The article sucks! Blogging sucks! Bloggers suck! Slashdot sucks! Oh, wait...
Old school = Journal / Diary
Now = Blogs
Future = Video Blogs
When he wrote this:
a nish
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=b
Argh.
Aah a Dear Diary moment !!
Half the blogs never get read or modded.
Nearly 50% of the blogs in existence are not interesting for an overwhelming majority of people is what i read from this. Thats not to say that all the non-personal blogs aren't just as bad. As Leo Laporte talked about on TWiT this week, Blogging is quickly becoming a serious problem with Google, and all the other search engines. Search just about any news topic, and you might find yourself with a blog talking about it, the source of material from said blog is another blog, and the chain will continue until you get to one of a few websites. I think that Google might be going in the right direction with their blog search, if they can use it to eliminate all blogging sites from searches which do not wish to return results from blogs. This must happen for search engines to be as easy and timeless as they have been in the past unless the novelty of blogging wears off, but who knows when that will happen.
same applies to pr0n...
It is, after all, pretty much the same as keeping a diary, except that you're (more or less anonymously) telling everyone about your problems. Which is, come to think of it, not that much different from telling noone.
Man is a slave because freedom is difficult, whereas slavery is easy.
Also a form of therapy?
About half the bloggers I know are in need of therapy.
For me, blogging is mainly about dealing with multiple sclerosis, its ups and downs, varying degrees of suckiness, and how I cope with them. I use it to share ideas, jewelry I've made, jewelry I'd like to make if MS will allow me, my kittycats and such-like. Politics? Get real! I vote, but that's about as involved as I get - MS hasn't left me with enough energy for that.
Lemon curry?
what about splogs(spam blogs). Blogspot represents a pretty reasonable sample of blogs. this random analysis puts splogs at 42% for blogger.com blogs.
95% of all sigs are made up.
Why talk to your friends about issues you have with them when you can bitch to thousands of anonymous readers, who will blindly agree with whatever you say to ensure you stay their online friend. People with more online readers and comments are defiantly cooler than anybody who handles personal issues personally.
Comment my pictures and I'll <3 you back....
*Shudders*
Losers whine about their best, Winners go home to fuck the prom queen
No no no no no no.
Wrong wrong wrong.
AOL conducted a SURVEY.
Which means that's 50% OF THE RESPONDERS, WHO ARE AOL CUSTOMERS, think that blogging is theraputic.
Jesus christ.
Then...don't post them? Is Slashdot really that short on story submissions? I submitted a story for the humor section a few days ago about laser-scribed chicken eggs that will "fight terrorism", and it was rejected within an hour of submission.
Gave me the distinct impression the queue was full of really good stories. I mean, what's funnier than barcoding eggs with a laser, so terrorists don't fuss with them? We like lasers, yes? :-)
Please help metamoderate.
There was a chart on the office wall about 25 years ago which went:
Project Life Cycle
I used to think it was funny, but years of work in various shops have taught me this is the grim truth. In effect the steps can be found within Microsoft, the first two where during the heady successes of the early days of gobbling up easily taken markets. Step 3 are the growing pains of trying to forge headway into existing markets against established competitors also the rapid pace of virii and worms stripping the veneer of the solid image projected to businesses. Step 4 is where the management and employees don't see the problems with the same eyes. Step 5 is the big JARBO reorg over Vista rollout problems. Steps 6 and 7 are Microsoft hunting down their own unhappy employees and sacking them for the failures of management. Step 8 is when complete outsiders from General Mills, Glaxo, Smith & Wesson and Toro come in and head up departments, over experienced insiders.
I don't work for Microsoft. BTW I don't work for Microsoft.. Uh, Steve, unhand my ch
[NO CARRIER]
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
If 50% of people are using their blog for therapy is it working? Are people that blog about personal problems etc. more or less likely to deal with them well? Id it simply enough to believe that you are helping yourself? Is it a mind over matter deal or is it a placebo effect? Is blogging just another form of self medication (like my favorite... drinking instead of blogging) that is not really helping and only delaying getting real help?
My personal thought is that blogging is a good way for people to deal with their day to day neuroses that probably aren't bad enough to see a psychoanalyst about. I personally write for two blogs. One we review music and movies and put up interesting tidbits and I will be running a podcast from it. The other is purely a message board for a group of friends to keep in contact.
chronically narcissistic. (It's always about you, isn't it)
Meh.
It should not surprise anyone.
Has someone tried a search for blog personal diary?
IMHO this is strictly related both to the age shift in the Internet audience AND to the competence shift, meaning that the percentage of technical gurus who once loved to contribute to the global knoledge has dropped down, leaving room for personal contributors.
Apple iProduct. Non importa cosa sia, lo comprerete!
The most irritating new trend, in my opinion, is not the whiny / kitty blogs, which are readily identified, but the "clip" blogs, sites that take a headline of a topic from digg.com or del.icio.us, or some other social bookmarking site, and link to the article with no new content whatsoever. It's as if the blogger is using their site as their own, personal bookmark list, nothing more.
I have had a site listed on clip blogs quite a few times. While I appreciate the effort that people make to link to it (and, I suppose, the Google traffic), it really is just noise on the net.
Best Windows Freeware
It's therapy driven because over half the boggers are teenage-wanna-punk-goth-emo kids mad at the world because they can't get a girlfriend/boyfriend. LiveJournal and mySpace have been a never ending parade of this nonsense.
This isn't news.
You mean to tell me the teen girl world doesn't revolve around politics or current events? Inconceivable!
If blogging is turning out to be somekind of therapy why don't the people just write their ramblings in a jounal and keep it to themselves. That way all those superfulous hits that appear on Google won't show and we can go back to finding the information we're looking for rather than having to wade through a sea of "I can't believe my bf (gf) dumped me. Why did he do that? Was it because I am anorexic looking? Wah! Wah! Wah!"
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
I dont think this is particularly surprising. I've recently started using it as a form of therapy.
My girlfriend broke up with me. At first I just wrote her a little, saying some things I had left to say. After I wrote it I found that I felt much better. Some time later, I wrote a second letter when I was feeling down. Same result. It would be problematic if I kept sending her letters, so I stopped, but I've began my own blog wich is really just a repository for all my writings. I write things I wish I could tell her, and it makes me feel better afterwards.
I don't know if its useful or not, but it does serve a purpose. Its a form of therapy, even if it makes things worses (I dont know if it does or not, I just know it makes me feel better).
Blogs have empowered anyone with the ability to write about anything. Seeing as how harsh and demanding our society has become, I personally feel that it's not very surprising that so many blogs revolve around personal issues.
As someone who has a long history of suffering from Clinical Depression I know how healing it can be to be able to "bitch at an anonymous audience". Hell, just the simple fact that a lot of my close friends read my blog is a big help. The oldest form of therapy as well is just talking about how you feel, and a blog is certainly able to do that - albeit in a kind of one-way form, but none the less it gives you the power to ventilate your thoughts.
Blogs don't have to be grand on a scale. A lot of bloggers come of with some weird kind of delusion of grandeur, they write about all kinds of pompous stuff instead of writing about the really interesting things - and then they get bored and tired when they're not immediately greeted with a flood of comments about how awesome they are. Me, I have a little different approach. I write MY thoughts, and primarily it's just for ventilation of my windy head. If people like it, great. If people don't, then please move along, no need to submit a comment about how my writing sucks or something like that.
My blog often revolves around every-day things, or when the mood goes south I tend to write about that. If people aren't interested it's not my problem since I don't need to please everyone who reads my blog. I have my friends, and over the last year I've attracted a small but dedicated following who read my ravings and rantings so obviously there's something interesting there.
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
You need therapy if you work for a chair throwing loonie like Ballmer.
This is my opinion. To make sure you don't steal it, it's covered by the DMCA.
Thinking about things in general can be theraputic, and turning your thoughts into writing helps you organize what you are thinking about. Journals and diaries have always been good for this, but what makes blogging different in some cases is that it gives an opportunity for the blogger to be part of a community support structure, via comments/blogrings/etc.
the last one.
Old school = Journal / Diary
Now = Blogs
Future = Video Blogs
After the Apocalypse = Journal / Diary
Today is the bestest day!
How do I post a picture of my cat here?
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
I find posting on slashdot very therapeutic.
I'm lonely.
I've been doing a "this is what I think about stuff" blog for a couple years, sometimes adding articles several times a week. But I recently deprecated it: turning off comments, deleting the bookmark to it, and basically swapping the whole thing out to disk. I've got too many balls in the air (so to speak), and taking the blog out of my day-to-day juggling act is one step on my road to greater happiness. I have books I want to read... and to write and to illustrate. The only way that's going to happen is to stop spending my time on less important things, like the blog.
And I think next I'm going to delete my bookmark to Slashdot.
http://alternatives.rzero.com/
There are a lot of things that bloggers reveal that should stay private.
There have been many times when I've gone to interviews in the past or met with clients to have them told me they checked out my blog. Not that anything bad was there but some people write too my information for the world to see.
The man who trades freedom for security does not deserve nor will he ever receive either. - Benjamin Franklin
I read lots of blogs, and as I read them I often think to myself:
1) Thank goodness my life is interesting and does not revolve around my cat (I like cats as much as the next man, but I don't replace the human beings in my life with fuzzballs).
2) Thank goodness I am no longer a hormone crazed teenager who is in love one moment and ready to commit suicide at the next (ah, those were the good old days...).
3) Thank goodness I have something better to do than cook up conspiracy theories all day long (if I read one more UFO blog or another blogger claiming to be a "Spook, I'll go balistic).
4) Thank goodness I have an occupation (while there are professional bloggers, those that post nothing more than rants about the bad employment market and whine about it all day long rather than look for work are not among them).
So... yeah. Blogs are theraputic. Often times, they can make me feel so much better about myself.
(the above is sarcasm and, obviously, doesn't refer to all blogs... so let's dispense with the flaming)
There was a time when people used to sit around on the porch, in the living room (hence the term "living" room), the kitchen table, etc, and actually talk to each other deeply. I think we humans need that kind of thing. For some reason, that does not happen much in our modern culture. A lot of blogs are kind of an unconscious outreach for that kind of thing, I think. We used to freely give each other therapy on a daily basis - now you have to pay for it and it's seen as a sign of weakness. Blogs offer a sort of new and hip way around that cultural barrier. It is still no substitute for real, honest, caring human interaction - but sometimes it might be all that's available.
Hexy - a strategy game for iPhone/iPod Touch
Why should this be such a surprise? Blogging is like writing in a journal, except it is online. Writing of any kind can be a form of therapy, why should blogging be any different?
I really don't understand why people make such a big damn deal about blogging. It's just an extension of journal writing in that it is published online, and as for it being a different kind of website, it is just a content management system used as a journal. Can somebody please tell me what the big deal is? Are the statistics in the article supposed to mean anything?
At least that's what I've done. I run a couple of blogs, some openly associated with me, and some which I write in annonymity(sp?). The ones which are openly associated with me aren't the ones I'm too open in because -- well, I don't think my mom would much appreciate it if I was writing in my blog about that seriously hot japanese girl living in the appartment building across the street, if you get my drift.
The ones I write in annonymity I'm totally open on. Some -- err, most -- are thematic, written in novel form, for example, with characters which are either me, or aspects of me, or people I wish I was. These tend to be my way of becoming a better person than I am, some how. For example, when this whole Katrina thing was going down, I remember writing a story about a Cassandra-like character, in Louisiana, trying to warn people about what was going to happen. It was my way of getting a handle of what was going on. (I'm a news junkie, and after 168 hours worth of news -- well, you can feel pretty helpless. Fantasizing that I'm not -- or wasn't -- is my way of getting over that.) Other times, I've written stories about living in the mid 1940's, as myself, and having a conversation with a person from that time, telling then what history held for them. (Yeah, they're both thematically the same: someone who knows the future talking to someone who doesn't. I happen to like that theme.)
But why do I write it in a public forum? Maybe it's because I feel like I'm talking to someone about this, like I'm telling a story, or being open in how I feel, something I find difficulty in doing with people I'll have to see again and again. I think it's got more to do with the fact that I'm a showman. Been one my whole life, and I don't think I'd have it any other way. As such, I've tried diaries before, but -- no, Not the same. There's just something appealing about someone else reading what you've written, regardless of whether they like it, hate it, or don't care about it. (Of the three, I always hope for the first, of course.)
So blogging, as a form of therapy? Yeah, you could say so. The down side is that if you've been through something really traumatic, then writing about it will likely only embed it more deeply into your mind. I can see that causing longer term problems. Of course, by writing and living vicariously through your writings, so to speak, one could preserve their own little corner of blissful Earth -- in escence giving a sort-of life to some small level of insanity as an escape from an otherwise harsh world. In this world, where some willingly go full time just to find happyness, we can be who we want to be without limitations or challenges from the outside world. It's not quite insanity, but a rather gentle and temporary madmess.
In essence, I suppose then that blogging is a form of escapism for me, and probably -- likely -- many others. Although I'm well adjusted in my own life, it's nice to be able to escape not just the drudgery of everyday living, but your existence entirely, and become someone else for a little while, thereby transcending into something a bit more permanent, if not eternal. I guess it's nice to slip into some new skin once in a while. And blogging does that. (As a form of "therapy", of course.)
So it's an AOL survey, very reassuring for AOL members. Science, Politics, Current Affairs - Norma, I'm scared. But, for only an extra $9.99 monthly, AOL can guide you safely to such delights as "AOLTechnorati: How to fix that incontinence pad", "AOLInstapundit: Brad and Jennifer - is it really over?", "AOLAndrewsullivan: How I made the sauce for Paul Newman's sausage al dente" and "AOLBoingboing: I laughed till I cried - Bob Hope's one-line golfing classics".
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
Bah! Blogging isn't as theraputic to me as posting comments and rants on Slashdot!
Generation Trance: What generation are you?
"Confession is good for the soul".
What about alcohol induced blogging as a form of therapy? I call it blearging. Before writing you drink an entire bottle of Jack Daniels. Then practice the following in that I'm-throwing-up-kinda-voice "Ralph, Earl, bring out the Buick." or "Ralph, Earl, bring out the gorilla." Next sit down at the keyboard and begin blearging. Oh, and try not to piss yourself.
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I don't know if I'd call blogging therapy. I think a lot of the blogging out there is just a way to make people feel better about themselves. It doesn't necessarily make them DO anything about what they are blogging about.
Abstinence is a government conspiracy. www.SafeSexZone.co
Guess I'll write about my feelings on both my blogs.
-FL
Blogging is the cheapest way to get some "head laundering". Why pay shrinks to talk about one's personal longings and anxieties? Simply register with a free blog account and pound your keyboard and your anxieties away.
My fellow Slashdotters ought to understand this sentiment -- as we crank out these comments, we are venting, and therefore undergoing some form of self-therapy, and it doesn't cost a dime. What bloggers do is very similar to what the commentators in this space do. I write about movies on one of my two blogs (http://sunandfun.blogspot.com/) and post news items on the other (http://sundroid.blogspot.com/), and the expensive shrinks of the world cry a little.
Sun and Fun
This shouldn't really come as a surprise. Writing or talking about your problems obviously works in a therapeutic way, The job of most therapeuts consists for 50% out of listening.
Even if one doesn't write about his own problems, but just rants about a random issue, it can work relieving. Creative Therapy has been recognized and encouraged for many years now.
The fact that writers 'know' that somebody is reading their blog, is interested in what they have to say, and that they actually mean something to one another, should prove helpfull too.
The real surprise is that 50% of the bloggers realises this. I'm assuming it does help the others too, to a certain degree.
What a sad world, that its people need so much therapy.
and now it's blogs.
....
Same need met, fairly similar concept, and in those times London and NYC had postal delivery five times a day, allowing one to share notes and such as well.
Mind you, back then that was the technology. This is similar in some ways, but not that surprising.
Next we'll bring back the Jet Pack as personal transportation device, or personal Steam Locomotives (we have a 200+ year supply of coal in the US, even if oil/gas are rapidly disappearing)
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Yeesh. Blogs are the most horrific thing to happen to the web since all-flash websites.
When a professional writer/critic maintains a blog it isn't a "blog," it's an op/ed on a specific subject.
When your average "blogger" does it it's mainly an example of attention seeking gone terribly awry. The worst trend I've seen is not the poorly written teeny-blog, but wrather the eloquent-yet-still-attention-seeking-teeny-blog. This is the sort filled with lots of abstract phrases and occasional (BAD) poetry. Same motivation, improved vocabulary.
Blogs are fine. At least you are not forced to read them. If you do go to someone else's website, it is through your own volition only. Blogging is fine. It's your fault if you subject yourself to someone else's misery online.
Actually, it wasn't a blog per se, but a K5 diary I started writing when my marriage ended. Folks loved it.
Then I stopped taking Paxil and got in a big fight with Jongular and left.
So... now I'm blogging from my own domain. [$my name$].info/blog if you're one of my old fans that's been looking for me. Please try not to link to it, I'm trying to stay away from getting too famous this time.
But it WAS great therapy. I think it helped more than the drugs.
(mind-reading capcha="taunting")
Yes, it is well known that keeping a diary to vent your frustrations helps; also, talking to other living people face to face works as well. Essentially, what this article tells us is that people need social interaction and that expressing your emotions helps. Very insightful, never would've thought...
Hell, I posted my own "story" about both major free DVD copying software packages becoming unavailable THE SAME DAY because BOTH authors were hired by DIFFERENT DVD copy protection companies THE SAME DAY. Now, you can't download any new copies of either of the two major free DVD copying software. I kinda' thought that that was newsworthy, but nope. Slashdot is all about the clickthroughs. Bummer.
However, out of the clear blue, my Crohn's Disease came back from out of nowhere and I went from a leisurely vacation to a 5 day hospital stay complete with heavy helpings of shots, IVs and a naso-gastro tube up my nose and into my stomach.
Feeling miserable, I started up a blog just to chronicle all of this and joke around about some of these truly awful things that were happening to me. As it turns out, it's the most efficient way to share what's going on with the people who care about what's going on and I don't have to write/tell the same stories over and over again.
As it's taken a life of it's own, I've found that it's not only helping my friends and family understand what's going on, it's helping me work through everything as well.
And as for whether or not you agree or disagree with this, it really doesn't matter. A personal blog/site is just that...personal. No one asks anyone else to read these types of things unless the author is going out and setting up Adsense accounts and creating Technorati profiles. Furthermore, it is the individual's choice to read something or not...
...then are Sports Blogs kind of like physical therapy?
I agree 100%. Expressing myself in any form relieves a great deal of stress for me. So talking, writing, and playing music work wonderfully.
There's no doubt in my mind that this is true for others as well.
Keeping things bottled up is very stressful and frustrating, and for me, those things are very paralyzing.
Ignore Alien Orders
nice one... you had to commission a survey to discover that up to half of all blogs are self-indulgent irrelevant crap? Next time, just send me a mail, I can tell you this stuff for free.
Hopefully they are not skipping their meds.
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
If you need the validation of your blog readers to feel better about yourself, then you have problems that a REAL therapist might have problems fixing. I think blogging (what a stupid word that is, anyway) is all about attention. If I want therapy, I'll write in a personal journal so I can reflect on my thoughts later; I won't post my thoughts for millions to see. I'm sure there are people on slashdot that post just for the high karma, so they can feel better about themselves.
"Mmmm, I have good karma... I must be doing okay."
I, for one, would rather worship the flying spaghetti monster than blog for therapy. At least maybe I'd get touched by a noodly appendage instead of feeling sad because only 2 people read my blog, and one of them was my mother.
Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened.
I would rephrase thusly: "If you are a crappy writer in the real world, you will be a less crappy writer in the blogging world."
I find that the fitful, occasional posts I make to my "blog" help me remember how to formulate my thoughts into coherent paragraphs instead of incoherent rantings. You can lose this skill otherwise, for example if you have a job where you work with poor communicators or where effective communication skills are not encouraged or rewarded.
No one reads my blog and I don't care, it's not really therapy as much as "writing practice".
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
Blogging is just people showing off their pathetic, meaningless, dull lives.
Journal keeping you fools. Writing in your diary. Of course it is theraputic. Please tell me they didn't spend a large $$ goverment grant to figure this out.
Who is this that even the wind and the waves obey Him? Surely this computer must submit also!
How many pubescents use LJ to stalk the girls who won't talk to them in real life?
500GB of disk, 5TB of transfer, $5.95/mo
Anyway, just another software dev's 2 bits worth.
-D. Philippe
People may find it cathartic to discuss some of their deepest feelings on their blog. But sometimes they seem to forget that the medium they are using to express these feelings is the Internet. Blogs may feel like on-line journals, but they are journals millions of people can read. Indeed most blogs are ignored, but you never know what will catch on.
Bloggers perhaps comfort themselves with the idea that this is an anonymous medium. But in general the anonymity is illusionary unless you have a hackers skill at hiding your tracks. And even then you have to be careful about posting recognizable detail. The criticism of your spouse or your boss may come back to haunt you. It has with many people.
When ever you post material on the Internet in an anonymous forum you should consider if you can live with it being connected back to you. If you might find this unpleasant, but not horrible, then perhaps it is worth the risk. But if you're blogging about your adventures with sex workers, drugs or the stupidity of your boss and management chain, then you may pay a price if you become known as the author.
Therapy? No one to challenge you or steer you straight. Therapy implies change and challenge to your thoughts, feelings and behavior. Blogs are more like free association, speechifying and lectures. Why bother talking to people, if you can talk AT them.
-Turnip Onion --- Neither micro nor $oft. Linux is a fine tool.
I like cats as much as the next man
I mean, the "next man" thing used to get you beaten and chained to a fence and left to die, but is now tolerated by most and even accepted by a large number of folks.
But the cat? Jees, buddy, you better get some help before the ASPCA comes down on your ass!
Anyway, blogging every night when I got home was very relaxing. It helped me to put the day in perspective and look back to see her progress that was difficult to see hour by hour. It also had two unforeseen benefits: I have a nice detailed record of the first 3 months of my daughter's life, and we didn't have to answer the same difficult questions over and over from concerned family members. It's far from great literature, mostly just a factual account that a stranger would find boring, but for me and my family it is priceless.
This space intentionally left blank.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Since there is usually a ~40% margin of error in polls, we'll say that 90% of blogs are used as a form of therapy ...and that explains about 90% of blogs!
First, I should disclose that my blog, The Splintered Mind, deals with personal issues and is often a form of therapy, though I like to believe that others may find the entries entertaining, useful, and sometimes even funny (even if unintentionally). Certainly the comments I receive from time to time reflect that.
That being said, I don't know how applicable the results of this poll are to blogging in general. I read an awful lot of political and technology blogs and not a single one of them is on AOL. In fact, considering that the poll was conducted for AOL on AOL from AOL users are we surprised that the majority of AOL "bloggers" blog about anything, read other blogs for entertainment, and don't rate politics or technology high in their answers?
I take issue with the poll participants being referred to as "US Bloggers" and not "AOL Bloggers". I don't believe the poll results represent the blogging mainstream at all. In fact, wouldn't the results differ depending on which blogging service was being polled? Wouldn't we see results like
"Subjects that LiveJournal Bloggers write about: Sexual Fantasies 55%, Creative Piercings 31%, Role Playing 15%, etc."
or
"Subjects that Blogger Bloggers write about: Spam 65%, Cats 23%, Auto Insurance 9%, etc."
OK, I'm kidding. But the pollsters are quite arrogant to declare their results speak for all bloggers in the United States of America.
The Splintered Mind - Overcoming
http://unfair-and-unbalanced.blogspot.com/
From the article, "Bill Schreiner, Vice President, AOL Community, puts it in perspective: "In a way, blogs serve as oral history."" Oral?? It "sounds" to me that this study prooved nothing bloggers didn't already know. Then again, any study that has been done on blogging has always been done by those who are trying to understand it - without becoming a part of it. And what does this study prove? That they still don't get it. Oral indeed!
Dear Blog,
I've never liked to write on you. Truth is...I've been afraid. You give me goosbumps in all the wrong places. But it's not you. It's me. I think I've had this fear of writing since 5th grade when Mrs. Zimbalowski had us write brief compositions and then exchange them with a classmate for correction. Well, I sat next a bit of a smart aleck, Tommy Filsdenoire. He was also pretty smart and never let me off easy if I even misplaced a single comma. I always dreaded writing compositions in that class.
Mrs. Zimbalowski herself was no better. She encouraged an objective review of classmates' writing. This extended to the ideas too. I felt that, if I let something provocative slip, it would come back to haunt me next recess; often it really did. For the assignment about life goals, I wrote about becoming a pioneering male flight stewardess. It goes without saying that, after Tommy read this, I was the clown on the foursquare.
I cried for nights over these matters but had all but forgotten them by high school. I just hated writing. When a friend of mine, coincidentally also named Tom, suggested I start a blog, I resisted, but he did not give up. All my friends started blogging. That's how they communicated! I had to adapt and overcome my anxieties. Now here I am, writing safe and sound.
On vit, on code et puis on meurt.
Played poker tonight with Scott and Alias from Security, and Steve from Research. Steve was the big winner, but I think he was cheating. Scumbag.
May 10, 1998
One of the higher-ups assigned me to take care of a new creature. It looks like a skinned gorilla. Feeding instructions were to give it live animals. When I threw in a pig, the creature seemed to play with it...tearing off the pig's legs and pulling out the guts before it actually started eating.
May 11, 1998
At around 5 A.M., Scott woke me up. Scared the shit out me, too. He was wearing a protective suit. He handed me another one and told me to put it on. Said there'd been an accident in the basement lab.
I just knew something like this would happen. Those bastards in Research never sleep, even on holiday.
May 12, 1998
I've been wearing the damn space suit since yesterday. My skin's getting grimy and feels itchy all over. The goddamn dogs have been looking at me funny, so I decided not to feed them today. Screw 'em.
May 13, 1998
Went to the Infirmary because my back is all swollen and feels itchy. They put a big bandage on it and told me I didn't need to wear the suit anymore. All I wanna do is sleep.
May 14, 1998
Found another big blister on my foot this morning. I ended up dragging my foot all the way to the dog's pen. They were quiet all day, which is weird. Then I realized some of them had escaped. Maybe this is their way of getting back at me for not feeding them the last three days. If anybody finds out, I'll have my head handed to me.
May 16, 1998
Rumours going around that a researcher who tried to escape the estate last night was shot. My entire body feels hot and itchy and I'm sweating all the time now.
I scratched the swelling on my arm and a piece of rotten flesh just dropped off. What the hell's happening to me?
May 19, 1998
FEVER GONE BUT ITCHY TODAY HUNGRY AND EAT DOGGIE FOOD
May 21, 1998
ITCHY ITCHY SCOTT CAME UGLY FACE SO KILLED HIM TASTY 4 / / Itchy. Tasty.
If there's one thing more tired that whining about how boring and pointless blogs are, it's bloggers whining about how pointless everyone else's blogs are.
Hey, if you're so tired of this shit, pull the plug on your server.
(Wait, no. Leave the comic book covers up. That's some funny shit.)
I started blogging years ago because I'd always get myself involved in some shenanigans with my friends, and it was funny to rehash it in a ridiculous way, and maybe in doing so, come across some hidden enlightenment among the minutiae. It was great, and admittedly it was basically a way to virtually high five each other. And slowly that email list grew and grew, to the point where people who weren't there would want to be included just to find out what happened and to hear about it in a manner other than "X happened." Nothing replaces a good narrative. But eventually, the email list grew out of hand, and some writing wouldn't make it past corporate spam or obscenity filters. Posting it on a blog not only circumvented that problem, but also provided with an easy means of archiving. I always so that if a blog about your life is boring, it's the life that has to change, not the blog.
While venting in a blog entry can be a good way to let off tension, and it's gratifying to have friends and even total strangers commiserate with you, it's important to remember that a blog is generally a public medium. Your friends and family can read it. Complete strangers can read it. Your boss can also read it. Text from it might be brought up years later as evidence in a criminal case. *wry grin* I've been bit by this in the past. Not the legal aspects, although a friend of mine had that problem. Just always remember that they're out there...
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
nice round number... whew! glad i got that outta my system... that sure felt therapeutic. Definitely got a buzz from that Second Hand Blogging (TM?). Friends dont let friends blog drunk?
Live according to the Categorical Imperative. If the Categorical Imperative tells you not to live by it... ignore it
That explains why blogs are so dull.
That's why the letter writing of the 19th century, followed by the telephony of the 20th century, will necessarily be followed by video calls in the 21st.
Except, um, the public has shown over the last 30 years that they don't want video conferencing for casual phone calls. Too much potential embarrassment.
Good intro: +25
Fear of English teacher: +25
Promising post degrading to boring moral: -5
Overall score: 45, F+
Notes: Cruxus, you can do better then this.
Sue: "Do you have psychiatrists in Walk-About-Creek in Australia?"
Dundee: "Nah, we have Wally."
Sue: "Who's Wally?"
Dundee: "Oh, Wally, he's the barman. When you go to the bar, you tell Wally all your problems; he tells everybody else; problem solved."
The phenomenon even has its very own word. I'm shocked, shocked that no one has mentioned it yet.
That explains why they're so dull.
Reading friday's entry means you're still alive on friday.
... or maybe an eleven. I'm sick of my stories getting routinely squished, immediately upon submission, too.
Dog is my co-pilot.
And I tried doing the whole spectrum of blogs from geek/tech to political to personal. None of them came close to this one for hits, where I utter not a word except to put the title of the pictures. Goes to show, people see better than they read (or, uh, something like that?).
Yah, but Slashdot is my therapy. Better to come in here and flame off at random about tech-tweak trivia (hereby abbreviated to TTT) then let the buildup of stress drive you to CompUSA to run down the aisles hitting Ctrl-Esc Alt-minus-C on all the Windows boxes...
Didn't any of the people surveyed cite business reasons? Blogging can help with search engine optimization, traffic pull and credibility enhancement. That's why I blog.
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