Sunday, March 07, 2010

blogging about blogging

Blogs (or web logs, originally). I just did a little research on blogs (Wikepedia being my trusty (?) friend as usual). Here are a couple things I learned which I found interesting:
  • Blogging seems to have started in 1994, and taken off in 1999, making it a pretty new phenomenon.
  • The number of blogs is now well into the tens of millions or more
  • The "blogosphere" is the collective community of all blogs
So why blog? My primary reasons are as follows:
  • I want pause and reflect on something and take the time to organize my thoughts
  • I want to talk to my friends and others about things that matter to me (and hopefully them!), even when these people are far away
  • I want to encourage people to think and grow
Yet sometimes I struggle with the feeling that a blog is just a way to air my opinions. The number of times I use "I" glares out at me like a warning light. Perhaps I should to write a post without using "I" at all. How does humility fit in with all of this? Would Jesus write a blog if he were living in my situation?

These are just a few thoughts and questions I have. I would love to hear yours. Why do you write blogs? More importantly, why do you read them?

p.s. Some of you might enjoy this video. Watch it if you feel you have the time. It didn't so much teach me new things as make me think about them a bit differently.

3 comments:

  1. My blog is:
    - an outlet for me to express my thoughts and emotions and experiences
    - a means for me to share with others what God is teaching me and doing in my life
    - a fun way for me to share my creativity and to help me evaluate my life experiences

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  2. It's interesting, because I never really considered blogs are sharing "news" - but I guess that has to do with the definition of news, which as the video suggests, is a loose definition.

    I think I blog for similar reasons as Darlene gave. In part, I think my own blogging stems from a desire to be heard - a blog suggests the potential for an audience. Where I used to journal extensively, I find I blog more now. In part, I think this makes me feel like the myriad of words I produce might actually have an effect (as you mentioned, to make people think, to help you think) - so pragmatically, a blog seems slightly more justifiable than simply journaling. Having said that, I go through massive existential-attacks when I feel that I've posted too much 'of myself' online, and then delete the entire accumulation of blog posts. Then a few months later, I find myself creeping back into the blog arena again.

    I think this gets to your question about "Would Jesus blog?" Thankfully, we don't necessarily have to answer that exact question since there were no blogs back in the day. But the principle of the matter isn't so easily evaded. I think it runs back to the ultimate question of why we do anything: is it to God's glory (and simultaneously, for our and others' edification). I have to check my motives when I'm blogging. Is it because I feel like I need to be heard? If it is, then I really need to spend a good hour in silence before Him, realizing and experiencing that He hears me, and moreso, that I need to hear Him.

    But like most technologies, blogs can be used to His glory. In fact, I mention something that relates to this discussion on my own blog today - namely, that whatever is good belongs to Him. While blogs may be used for evil, while they may even be conceived out of evil motives, He is yet lord of the blogging world. So stay close to Him and follow Him, and blog in His presence.

    And personally, I like the "I" - because it means that you, my friend, are on the other side of these cyber words. In fact, I'd say the relational aspect of blogging is one of its more easily redeemable qualities. The "I" reminds the reader that there is a human being on the other side. It reminds that the words you speak, while they might be for selfish reasons, can also be born out of love, joy and a desire to honour God.

    The "I" reminds me that the real reason I read your blog is not for the 'theoretical' concepts and ideas, but for the reality that relationships matter - whether between human beings, or between human beings and the created world, or between human beings and God.

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  3. thanks for your comments friends... they are helpful and good.

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