Blogs: Does Anyone Care?

[Brown Cap]

Hello, Escapists -

I have a question that can remain brief, unless details are needed.
A lady friend of mine has a blog: Essentially weekly summaries of her life. I read them because she is of interest of me, and like most anybody, I read them to find out if she writes about me or other cool stuff (which she does).

But, I feel like it isn't really a popular idea. Granted, I feel it can be a stress-reliever: being able to generalize your life and rant and rave about problems or new experiences. That is the part that interests me - a non-journal journal. Self Expression at its near-finest.

However, I ask myself - what would be the point? Who the hell would want to read about my day? Who is interested in reading the lives' of strangers online, spending time to do that?

Answer me this, friends - do people actually read blogs? Are they worth the time?

 

[BrassButtons]

I read blogs, but not the kind that your friend is making. I'm generally not interested in journal-type blogs unless they're written in a way that makes them extremely entertaining. Most of the blogs I read either focus on some specific topic, like gaming, or give information and tips I can use (like various crafting blogs).

 

[Batou667]

Blogging was a fad that was excusable about 10 years ago when the idea was relatively new and fresh. There are a few blogs worth reading even now, but personal blogs? Nobody gives a hoot. They tend to be interesting first and foremost to the person actually writing it and much else.

If you really have a desire to "put yourself out there" just get a Twitter or Facebook account. The idea that pictures of your cats or descriptions of what meals you cooked will be of interest to anyone outside your close group of friends and family is bewildering.

 

[Rip Van Rabbit]

It really depends on the the type of blog itself. Some of them are created for entertainment purposes, others to showcase a person's work (creative and otherwise), simply connecting and collaborating with like-minded individuals and then you'll run across the personal blogs (the one your lady friend seems to have).

Let's just put it out there, my ex basically kept her diary online, where she would rant and rave about any thought that flies through her skull.

I'm not too well-versed on the variety of blogs, but I was introduced to Tumblr at some point. In all honesty, it was a great resource for connecting with otherwise unknown artist's, psychology news and gaming discussions as a whole.

Basically, with Tumblr, you can link to other blogs that strike your fancy, culminating in this mass of information about the subjects you're interested in. Quite enjoyable and handy for what it was. It's also an easy way to get a good following. On Tumblr: people will care about what you post and you will attract new followers, there are always like-minded individuals.

In order to answer your question OP: It's a great method for self-expression, belonging to a community, giving yourself a safe haven to retreat to, having a space to claim your own, expanding your knowledge through others and just generally used can be used as a free promotion tool for creative works.

Hope that helps

 

[rutger5000]

The internet is huge, mind boggeling huge. So you're guarenteed that some people will stumble upon your block, and reply to it. Reply to those replies in a not-being-an-asshole way and some of those people will stick around and you'll have followers.

 

[MajorTomServo]

People are only interested in tumbl-blogs these days. One text post of "Weekend with the friends. SOO NEEDED IT. #about me" for every twenty Doctor Who/Disney/Avengers gif sets.

That said, I do follow 'blogs' in the sense of "I'm going to put out a little snippet of content every couple of days." Like, short webcomics or duck gifs.

 

[RJ 17]

I'd imagine that most people read blogs that serve as editorials, not so much personal journals. Really that's why I don't have a facebook, twitter, or any other kind of social media account...I think it's frickin' stupid. Who the hell cares that you woke up this morning and the dog ate your biscuit? Going to the library now? Big deal. I'd imagine that "here's my personal journal, READ IT!" blogs are just the same...all you're doing is having the conversation "How was your day?" with someone without actually talking to them. So the value of a "personal" journal blog is about the same as the value of asking someone how their day was...do you honestly care or are you just being polite?

The editorial blogs have a value that's equivalent to the value of a standard editorial. People read them because they agree with the views and thoughts that are expressed with them. You might read a videogame journalists' blog because it has a lot of inside information on a studio that you really like, or maybe the guy hates this company and keeps you well-stocked with ammo on just how horrible that company is, or maybe you've come to find that this person has a very similar taste in games as you so you can really trust his/her word when they talk about games. While mostly opinion based, these blogs at least offer up information that has a point, it's not just saying "So then we went to the campus library and of course JOHNNY was there. I couldn't believe it!"

In short, if you keep a personal blog that's writen as though in a journal or diary published for the world to see, then I think that you think you're way more interesting than you actually are. To answer the question of the topic: no, I certainly don't give a damn about "how was your day?" blogs, and I'd sincerely hope that no one else does either. But this is the internet, so I'm certain that for every jackass like me out there, there's at least 20 people who just can't get enough of mindlessly reading about other people's days. If the people that write those blogs are way less interesting than they think they are...think of the lives of the people that actually READ them. But hey, if you're reading a chick's blog to make nice with her, then there's nothing wrong with letting a player play.