Why oh why?

Randy Morin tagged me on the meme “Why I Blog”. I’ve written on this topic so many times that I’ll make this a meta-post, linking and discussing previous posts. Who knows, I might even add some new thoughts while I’m at it, just because I don’t know how to shut up.

I started this blog in January 2006 by asking the same question, and gave my stated purpose as seeking the answer. For ten months thereafter, the only comments on that post were spam — which rendered the question all the more puzzling.

Then I thought, maybe it’s a good e-mail replacement. That was before my blog starting collecting just as much spam as my Inbox.

I soon found that my blog was a great platform for embarrassing myself. And who hasn’t experienced the anxiety of premature RSS?

Of course I easily got caught up in the statistics long before they were significant (as if they are now). But I got over that — at least, I’m managing the dependency.

As I got more comfortable with the medium, I started having more fun with it. I also began to develop a community of readers, who pretended they liked what I had to say so I’d link to them.

Is it about the audience? Yes, and no.

Last summer I began to formulate a purpose for blogging on Chip’s Quips: to become a real boy. Learning to be myself. Writing about myself on a public site helps me see myself more clearly. That can be pretty ugly, but it holds a certain morbid fascination. I also became more aware of what I don’t say, which is even more gruesome.

It’s great for bitching, or beaching.

The best part is getting to know interesting people that otherwise I would have probably ignored.

If only there were more time for it.

Hey, Randy asked me this very question last June. Robert Hruzek also wanted to know why I blog. And I answered a similar question from Diogenes not long ago. Are you guys trying to tell me something?

While I’m being all meta, why not ask the meta-question: “why ask why I blog?” Is it just to give us something to talk about? Are you genuinely curious about my motivations? Are you trying to gain insight into your own, so you can figure out why you’re addicted to this time-consuming passion, too?

Now for people to nag tag. Randy named 14 people. I’m not up to that, but I’ll tag the traditional quinary plenary five: Alyx, Max, Greg, Eastwood, and Edward. If anyone else wants to respond, let me know and I’ll link to you.