Monday, March 29, 2010

So blogging, right?

Blogging (at least personal blogging) is the ultimate in fundamentally self-indulgent mediums. You just. . . talk about yourself, and maybe people will read. And when I abandoned any aspirations to interesting content--and started posting constantly--I assumed most everyone would stop reading. The great thing about being self-indulgent on a blog is that no one who doesn't want to has to spare the time. It's deeply voluntary; I tell people who give me guilty looks ("I just haven't had the time!") not to worry about it. Every day is an awful lot to expect people to donate towards my preening/writing practice.

However: This is not how things went down. Someone is still reading. In fact, I'd say it has to be at least a dozen someones, based on the hit counter. It was a pleasing but disconcerting discovery, mostly disconcerting because I have no idea who these people would be. Today I found out that one of the someones is my friend S.

Here's why this is particularly awesome news:

--S is awesome. Right now, she is doing* this really cool thing. Additionally, she is kind, a good listener, really smart, and I have never known her to have an unsubstantiated opinion.

--I've been wanting to get to know her better for a fairly longish time. Yay for technology furthering social connection!

--After reading a month's worth of emotional exhibitionism, S is still interested.

This last is a weirdly big deal, and it's made me think a lot about the social/emotional mechanics of blogging. These are things that take up a high percentage of my thoughts; ultimately, I need friends who are OK, even comfortable, with that. They aren't things I'd tell people, usually. . . almost ever. . . so it's hard to meet that requirement, without something like this. Hmn.

And this is the part where I go to sleep. More on this later, maybe.


*ah, and by doing, I mean founding the organization. I told you she was awesome.

3 comments:

SAC said...

Um, the "really cool thing" link is broken. Or, it isn't working for me right now.

Hooray for having listen-y friends!

Anonymous said...

in leaving this comment, i face several difficulties that, unrehearsed as i am in blogs (you'll remember i told you that yours is one on a list of two that is consistently read by me), i'm hoping you will help me to work out.
first is the selection of an identity--i haven't one, in the blog sense. is it appropriate for me to just tell you that this is shannon?
next is the post that i am commenting on. i would love to tell you how exciting it was to read about myself on a blog, thank you for your comments, and especially thank you for linking up to my site. But. the link is, in fact, not working, so i cannot affirm that you are even talking about me. what if you have another friend whose first name begins with an s, is founding some great project, and had a discussion with you about reading your blog??? this would be rather embarrassing for me, then, wouldn't it?
my third question is, how will i know that you read my comment at all? do you comment on your comments?
and lastly, are comments even supposed to be this long, or have i broken some rule of blogging etiquette? to be on the safe side, i will stop commenting, but i will venture out enough to say that, even if you are talking about someone entirely else, then i still really do like your blog.

Day said...

Aaagh! If anyone is violating blogging manners here it's me. You're most welcome to comment on any post of any age, and make it as long as it needs to be to say what you have to say. I would have put your whole name on this, but you never know what level of internet anonymity other people would choose for themselves.

I've been limiting my blog activity to actually posting (instead of, say, fixing that link) because my computer is semi-broken, and I haven't had a chance to deal with things on a less broken computer (at school or work) until now.

I get email notifications about all comments, so it's very rare for me to miss them, though I think that may have happened once.

And, I'm thrilled that you like my blog anyway. :)