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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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I think it more or less comes down to the fact that if you are a decent writer with a somewhat interesting life, your blog, like any personal journal, will be good. If you are a crappy writer in the real world, you will be a crappy writer in the blogging world. (I refuse to use the term "Blogosphere").
If you have something to say, and an interesting way to say it, people will listen to what you have to say.
99% of blogs that I have read are poorly written, boring, and in a nutshell, sheer crap.
And All I Ask is a Tall Ship And a Star to Steer Her By
(I refuse to use the term "Blogosphere").
:P
You just did.
I do agree with you. I have thought about starting a blog (or even keeping a journal here or on paper in my desk), I never do, mostly because I can't stand to read my own writing (when on the topic of discussion). If I can't stnad to read it, then I'm not even going to expect anyone else to do so either.
Besides, therapy is what my shrink is for.
-nB
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I wouldn't say Therapy (big t) as much as venting. If something pisses you off, you can write about it, and maybe someone will comment on it and agree with you, which is always nice. Therapy is what you go to when you have a problem, while blogging is just blowing off some steam. Related but not the same.
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
I find personal blogs that just constantly run on with someone's personal life to be the dullest reading
While that may be true for many blogs, you obviously haven't found the interesting personal ones. Let me tell you something - most fiction out there is just the same thing done in a different and interesting way. Hence, it it is the same with blogs; they may all talk about the same overall themes in their lives, but the good ones make it either more poignant, meaningful, or somehow universally applicable to the reader (and therefore create a connection). Some can do this through language, others through their particular point of view, but trust me, there are good personal blogs out there. One that I read is so entertaining on so many levels (literary, humorous, emotional) that it's almost overwhelming (and I also have a feeling that the person is actually a well established writer - it's been hinted at in his entries). The thing is, this blog is just an account of his day to day activities, none of which are significantly more interesting than your typical individual, yet it's written to be completely enthralling.
Most creative writing classes always say "know your audience". What I think makes this blog so interesting is that while he knows their is a potential audience out there, it's not pandered to. There are no silly quizzes, "memes" are avoided, and the usual personal blog garbage is not to be found. Or to put it another way, he knows his audience is him, and *maybe* some other readers. It makes for some interesting reading.
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...
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.
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Hence why nobody reads them. I keep an online journal (blog if you must use the accursed word) mostly because I like shiny things (screwing around with PHP/MySQL), but I honestly don't expect anybody to read it except a few family members and friends. If I were some random guy wandering in off the larger internet, I know I'd think my site was almost as boring and unoriginal as reality TV. Unless you're someone interested in what's going on in iamlucky13's life, the only thing my site has going for it is the fact that it doesn't look like a blogger, livejournal, or myspace creation.
As for myself, I don't even find most non-personal blogs interesting, like you do. In general, the organization and delivery of content is much better from more established sources, like slashdot, NASA, ars technica, space.com, etc.