Rant About Blogging

The Cool Thing About Blogging
Blogging is a funny thing. I'd been a blogger for over 10 years now. I've made friends whom I would never have met otherwise - some remain virtual, but those who I actually get to eyeball and exchange ideas with, that's perhaps the coolest thing. In a limited geographic confine where it may be hard to find someone to resonate with, blogging puts the word out in the virtual landscape to like-minded individuals or groups. The selection exponentially increases to a global level. Priceless!

Price I Pay
At the same time, I've lost friends. Why? Because they think I'm writing about them. Oftentimes, I talk about something universally common that it's easy to think it's about them. Sure, it may apply, but it sure applies to 500 more. Of course I'm sensitive about privacy issues and err on the conservative side if I even think it'll be an issue.

Copyrighted Ideas?
Some friends I lost too because they feel proprietary about an idea I blogged about. I can understand and appreciate intellectual properties, but this is certainly not the case. When we talk about the concept of "best friend", to which I'm infinitely curious about (yeah, I have issues about it), then I would feel free to talk about the ideas discussed (just the ideas, not the person!). I don't think anyone can copyright ideas about "best friend", any more than Lenin (the Marxist writer) can complain about some guy who wrote about equality for the masses.

Target Audience?
Blogging is also funny in a way that I can write about intimate things to a global faceless audience, the stuff I wouldn't even tell my best friend (not that I have any, and not that I need one, although I'm certainly open to having one...you see my issues here? LOL!). I even maintain that my blog reader knows me better than my own folks. I guess what determines that level of candor is who your target audience is. Uh, now I got myself started.

Who are you writing this for?
A lot of bloggers don't mindfully think about this question: Who are you writing this for? It's not as obvious at it seems. Even though your readership maybe a specific or broad demographic from a global audience, it doesn't necessarily mean you're writing for them. Maybe you're just sharing. Who you write for determines many things that come out of a blog - the choice of words, the level of candor, your demeanor, your writing style, etc.

Really, Who?
Even this realization didn't come early for me. The whole time, I thought I was writing to anyone on the planet who had time on his hands to bother reading about my rant. That's until I asked the question, "If no one read my blog, would I still continue to blog?". The answer of course was a resounding YES. Then, who am I writing this for? an imaginary audience? a make-believe best friend? a girl I'm trying to impress? myself? I had to ask the 'check-and-balance' questions that eliminated all of them. I still didn't know exactly who I was writing my blogs for.

Back to the Future
I don't know how I came about it, but I finally nailed it! I was writing to myself - but not in the here-and-now. I'm actually talking to myself 20 years into the future. I saw myself bald, bent and toothless who find the bed the most comfortable place on the planet. I saw myself reading about my exploits, reading about my ideas, looking at pictures of places and people I've met, food I've tasted, pains of defeat, exhilaration of accomplishment, etc. Without my blog, perhaps all these would be lost into oblivion or perhaps appear as a formless blur.

Keeping It Real
That probably explains why I can be intimate about my thoughts, because I'm not going to bullshit myself in the future. The blog has to be real - even if it means losing a few friends, even if it means walking away from money. I've refused money when asked to write an editorial advertisement disguised as a blog. To the extent I write about something I got as a complimentary perk (like a free dive, free entry into a mountain bike race, etc.), I make sure I make it clear that my words will be mine and not the freebie-giver - that or no deal. I can always make my money doing something else.

Resolve
Yep, for as long as I can strike a keyboard, I'll be blogging.

--- TheLoneRider

These guys like this story:

Dave Joudrey

Comments:

Leticia Dacawe
(Sep 3, 2011) I've been constantly reading your writings for over three years (?) now....and i find them informative and innovative...i'm learning so much from every item or experience that i read in your blog...keep on inspiring us, your readers...!

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