These last few days I spent some time discovering the blogging world. The word “blog” comes from the combination of the words Web and log; it’s a log posted on the Web.
In that case, most of my generation are already bloggers. Facebook, Twitter, Vine, and Instagram are all forms of blogs. I guess that means I was a blogger already, and I didn’t even know it.
I was amazed at uncovering how vast the blogging world really is.
I fell into the cyber rabbit hole, navigating through sports blogs, fashion blogs, personal blogs, and how-to blogs (which were not at all helpful). I finally stopped when I had to go eat something after looking at pictures of pasta and cake on cooking blogs. There were blogs with one author, blogs with multiple authors, short blogs, tall blogs, big blogs, small blogs.
Why do so many people blog? I tried keeping a diary once when I was in second grade after reading “The Princess Diaries.” However, I couldn’t think of what to write, and I felt pretty uncomfortable talking to myself so I decided to stick with venting to my cats.
Because of my experience, I figured people only blogged to get publicity, convince readers of something or spread their ideas and propaganda. I never really considered the possibility that people might blog simply to blog.
Those who blogged because it was their passion had the best blogs. They wrote because they enjoyed writing, not because they were trying to accomplish anything in particular through their writing.
The emotional blogs on controversial topics like politics and ethics were definitely interesting—if you were interested in the topic. But some blogs never failed to be entertaining, no matter how trivial the topic was.
The Twitter feed “Dear Girls Above Me”— a blog made up of a series of letters in response to the ditzy things the two girls in the apartment above the author say—became so popular that the author wrote a book. On the website “My Life is Average,” many people post entries on their lives. As you might expect from the title, many are plain and uninteresting, yet some people are capable of making even the most “average” things funny: “Today, I was drinking out of a cup with a straw. As I went for a sip, the straw went to the other side of the cup, so I decided to not use it. I went to take a regular sip, when the straw swung back around poked me in the eye. I’m sorry I offended you, Straw. MLIA.”
It doesn’t matter what these bloggers write on. Whatever it is, they make it funny, entertaining and witty simply through their style. Their personalities shine through their words, and you can’t help but like them, even though you have no idea who they are. The thing is, it’s not that the authors of the engaging blogs are necessarily funnier, or smarter, than the boring bloggers. They are just way better at writing and expressing themselves. I’m sure that some of the boring bloggers have great ideas to share, but they just can’t phrase their ideas in a way that makes people care—and stay awake.
I’ve been sitting here for a couple hours now struggling with my first blog and envying these talented writers, whose words flow through their fingers into the computer so easily and gracefully. Blogging is honest and naked, created in the spur of the moment. The entertaining blogs are relatable and truthful. They sound like a stream of thoughts, because that’s what they are. The author didn’t make 10 drafts and their writing doesn’t go through five different editors. The author sat down, wrote it and pressed the button. And that’s what makes a blog all the more personal and remarkable.
I want to write like they do.
The way some of these writers manipulate their words brings to mind one of my favorite manipulators, Socrates. Socrates went around Athens arguing with people basically just to prove them wrong. Although Socrates was a great thinker, lots of his arguments are faulty and hypocritical, yet he never failed to win the dispute. Many of the most powerful men and women in history have been good speakers and writers.
Reading some of these blogs reminded me of the power and importance of words. In the modern world, where you can communicate to anyone instantly to thousands of people with the click of a button, writing is the key to everything.
You want to go to college? Become rich? Invent something? Make a difference? Change the world? You’re going to have to learn to express your thoughts clearly and write well and effectively.
So I have decided to take on the challenge of writing this blog. I hope my blogging journey will be both beneficial to me and entertaining to my readers.
