I was tagged by Hoi-en (and then Patrick) to detail the reasons why I blog. The dealio is supposed to be five reasons, but I've never been very good at following the letter of the law, so here, rather than a numbered list, is more a generalized explanation.
Blogging is really many things to me, but as I noted in my first entry in March 2000, it's mostly a public diary for me. At some points it's more diary, at some points it's just getting down some random thought, and at some points (mostly when I'm lazy), it's more simple public exhibition. And when I'm really *really* lazy I post a link to something funny.
I diarize to take snapshots of specific events, things that are memorable at the time and that I want to keep active in memory. You can tell when I'm getting serious when I adopt a fiction-writing sort of format, mostly, because I read a lot of fiction and this format is familiar to me, but also because I feel that I'm better able to capture things like dialogue and pacing that way. It's also great practise for the book I'll never write.
I diarize publicly because I think that we're too private, in some ways, which is something of a non-sequitur for someone who is in general a pretty private person. I'm admittedly determined not to give "the man" more information than he needs (I never give my phone number to the cashier at Winner's, for example, and never, ever speak to telemarketers except to tell them to remove me from their calling list). I fully acknowledge the right to privacy, but I also think that we all could benefit from getting further into each other's heads, to walk a mile, or ten feet, in another person's shoes. This is why I try to post things sometimes that make me uncomfortable... that are too personal. To try to give someone that little bit of what it's actually like in my shoes, and not just what my PR image is all about.
I'm a private person, but I also manage to simultaneously believe the world would be a vastly better place if we were all telepathic... if there were no way to hide. So many terrible things in the world happen, and continue happening, because they are secret. Lots and lots of people do bad things when they think no one is looking. Telepathy could change all that. Blogging is where it all could start.
So how many things is that?
1. to keep a diary
2. to organize random thoughts
3. to practise writing
4. to become telepathic
Hmmm... need one more if I'm going to be a follower.
5. oh yeah... to show off my bum
Posted by Ken Allen at March 7, 2007 8:02 AM