Blogging

by Madeleine Kando

I have been spending an awful lot of time lately getting this blog ‘optimized’. It is, of course, a never ending process, especially for someone like me, who has an obsessive compulsive nature.

I am starting to feel the side-effects of too much web searching, too much sitting on my posterior. I have forgotten what blogging is really about – writing good stuff for those of you out there, who seem to enjoy it.

But even blogging is a term that needs to be put under a magnifying glass. 'Web logging' is the original term. So, what exactly are you logging, when you web log?

I can understand the word ‘logging’ in the context of a world explorer, like Christopher Columbus. He logged his journey, so that, in case he shipwrecked, there would be a record of his attempts at discovering the other half of the world. But logging what color lipstick you are going to wear to a party? Is that worthy of anyone’s reading time?

Let's be honest, except for the few outstanding blogs out there in whose category I will never dare put myself, most blogs are really diaries with a whole lot of ballony and very little substance. On a blog you can voice any trivial thought that would have gone unsaid under the old rules of the printed page. The cost of printing was a safeguard against b.s.

Besides, most bloggers don't want to read other blogs, they want others to read THEIR blogs, including me. After all, aren’t we all the center of the blog universe?

My husband, who doesn’t blog, doesn’t comment on blogs, doesn’t read blogs (except mine, after we’ve had a fight and he is trying to kiss up to me), is the smart one. He knows that other people’s diaries are just random thoughts that should really be kept in a blogger’s head rather than have them pollute the internet. I mean, one of the first things babies have to learn is not to defecate all over the place. The same should apply to bloggers.

I know what you are thinking: ‘look who’s talking?’ Yes, I guess you are right. I am the worst offender. Here I am, ranting about blogging, while I am blogging.

But at least I am conscious of my own egomaniac personality. My ‘diary’ has helped me get things off my chest without constantly harassing my husband. It has been a place to ‘pretend’ write. Will I ever write for real? Like a story that is longer than a two-page rant?

Aaah, now that I have got THAT off my chest I can continue with my attempt at 'optimization'. That way you can all benefit from my infinite wisdom on the futility of blogging. leave comment here