The Blogging Breed

It has come to my attention recently that, perhaps, us bloggers are a rare breed of people. After all, even though I blog and I read blogs and sometimes by scanning the seemingly fathomless scope of blogs out here in the blogosphere, you start to think that everyone blogs.

Wow. Totally overuse of the word “blog” there.

Anyhoo, this is simply not the case. It may seem like everyone is blogging but I am sure that if you started to look at number of blogs vs number of people capable of blogging, I’m sure bloggers would top out at 1% or something of the population.

This becomes apparent on some days when you peruse new blogs and see your “circle” of fellow blog friends leaving comments or being included in the links. It is indeed a small blogging world after all.

Besides, the whole “blogging phenomenon” has kind of gone way of the other techie phenomenons. Can anyone remember how “cool*” it once was to use a chat room? Now, that has gone to the wayside, just as blogging has. Just look at the number of people who USED to read your blog, who have fallen off the face of the earth or indeed your favourite bloggers who one day just stopped for whatever reason (Wombat, anyone? Where are you btw, we miss you!).

I put a star next to the word cool because, well, like chat rooms, blogging is not very “cool,” is it? I mean, to people who don’t blog, is it possible that we do is quite “nerdy” and “lame?” The thought never crossed my mind until recently, when I suddenly became aware of how potentially stupid it is for me to have a blog. OK, maybe not stupid, that’s a bit harsh. But how about dorky, geeky and nerdy?

Why, I am not too sure, but I think anytime you get a whole bunch of people together on the internet, for whatever reason, there is a huge NERD stigma attached to it. After all, we start to befriend each other, email each other, facebook each other and the “blog world” slowly becomes the “real world.” I know it did for me awhile back and once my therapist pointed that out to me, I slowly weaned myself away from the fake world.

But that doesn’t mean that the friends you make, the opinions you hear and the comments you leave don’t mean anything. It’s still real. It’s just maybe…not that cool?

Or maybe, just maybe, WE are the cool ones and everyone else is just technological pariahs.

Of course, this was the same kind of reasoning I used back in high school when I had a penchant for chain necklaces and guys who wore makeup.

So why do we blog? What makes us “bloggers?” Why do we do blog while many, many other people don’t?

I know with me there is no clear-cut reason. Just a few:

*Being a journalist (well, going to journalism school) is what opened my eyes to this medium in the first place (because, let’s face it, blogging/internet is a media outlet)

*I am a writer. That is what I do; it’s my passion (at times, I guess, like many writers) and is one of the few things I have been told I am good at. At any rate, blogging keeps me writing, and yes I write at work, but this is the one time I can have total artistic freedom. Hell, even when I am screenwriting and attempting to write a novel, I still have limitations of the market and genre and so on. In blog land, I can write about anything – all I have to contend with is a bunch of confused commentators at most.

*I like to make my opinions heard; I like the world to know what I think. Many years ago, I had ridiculous notions of being famous. Now I know that I didn’t actually want to be famous, I just wanted to have people care about what I thought, and that by being famous, I would be able to do through interviews etc. Blogging for me has squashed any stupid fame dreams because my opinion is heard and – for the most part – people DO care about what I think. Of course, you have to wonder about some of these people…

*I’m an open person – so I have been told - many times. I guess it’s true. I like to share and I like to listen to other people share. But of course, I do draw the line. I mean, I have a whole slew of family issues, personal issues, etc that I never have and never will blog about. But the other things, the things that aren’t close to me, I have no issue with expressing. In fact, sharing myself at certain times is actually a great relief.

*I am a storyteller. I work for a storytelling company, after all. And, believe it or not, I have a lot of stories that I have yet to tell. While I love (and will and do) hash out stories to my friends in person, it’s also fun to write it out in narrative form too.

So, why do you think you are a blogger? Are certain types of people drawn to this medium? Do you feel there is some stigma attached to you just because you do blog? And if you don’t blog but just like to read them, does it still apply to you?