Blogging for the sake of it again
I keep finding myself wanting to blog, but not having anything to write about.
It’s not that I don’t do anything – recently I’ve been doing quite a lot – it’s more that I want something easy, different and uncontroversial to cover.
I have plenty of opinions but they’re not that interesting, they require a lot of energy to commit to ‘paper’, they expose too much about me if I’m not careful, and they just add to the ringing of ill-informed noise that clutters up the internet.
If I had something to catalogue, or a hobby, that would be great. But I’m too lazy, distractable and easily put off to stick at anything.
Which is why this blog is a bit random, and why I instigated Sheep Dip and Tuesday Tips as a way of adding some consistency.
My problems are two-fold: I don’t know what I want, and I never finish anything.
I didn’t go to university because I didn’t know what I wanted to do; and I’ve been in the same job for thirteen years for the same reason. I have some interests but I never stick at them for long, so I have nothing particular to write about with any authority.
I have loads of ideas but they never come to anything because I get discouraged easily, grow to hate them quickly, move onto something else or get paralysed by a fear of completing them. So blog posts are often conceived but rarely see the light of day.
Put those together and you’ve the makings of a crap blogger: someone who doesn’t have any material and wouldn’t get around to writing about it anyway.
Strangely, however, this post is being conceived as I type; I had no idea what I was going to write when I started it. Maybe I should do this more often.
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One of the conversations I had while travelling today with Charlotte Carey was about the social pressure to blog (and then to blog properly). The “you must blog – and in the manner we tell you” approach seems odd and in some ways counter productive, particualry to things like digital inclusion. What’s more important is that people can blog so that they have that channel ready when they need it. Perhaps the social pressure part of blogging culture is a bigger barrier to blogging than technology?
I told one of out second year students the other day that I “don’t blog”. She was pretty flabbergasted by this, perhaps because she is in the “you must blog” mode of thinking. What’s more interesting though is the fact that I was clearly talking rubbish. I do blog. Quite a bit. I just don’t fit what I see as the normal blogger model because I publish in lots of places (Interactive Cultures, We Share Stuff, Uni Survival, and occasionally my Posterous), comment more than I post, and I tweet a lot (too much).
Perhaps, like me, you get things off your chest and move on quickly because you tweet? Maybe a twitter diet would make you blog more? Maybe it wouldn’t because you might think “there isn’t that much to say on this”.
So what I’m saying Mike is: don’t sweat it. Blog when you want to and the way you want to, not because you feel you have to.
Jon Hickman
Thanks Jon. I agree particularly with the points about ‘social pressure’. There does seem to be a presumption that people should have a focus to their blogging, which in turn suggests a presumption that people are in it either to make money or to garner respect. I do get sick of all the articles on how to blog effectively: of course, when I’m blogging in a professional capacity that may be important, but why can’t I blog simply because I feel like it?
The problem though is that I wish I did have a focus, because at least that would mean I didn’t feel like I do nothing of any consequence! Oh well..!
Michael
At the risk of overstating my point, I think your voice will find itself when it’s ready (if it hasn’t already), and you’re already an active and useful member of the blogging community (whatever that may be).
In Clay Shirky’s Here Comes Everybody he uses a case study of a girl who blogs about fashion and nights out with her friends, then suddenly there’s a coup d’etat in her country: the blog shifts to something more journalistic, more political which develops an international readership.
I think that’s a great example of what I’m talking about: one day all this activity might become something bigger than what you think it is now, what’s brilliant is that if you’re ever in the position where you can tell a story that matters to a wide audience you can.
In the meantime enjoy doing it your own way and at your own pace.
Incidentally, I think I comment here more than anywhere else: so if nothing else your blog speaks to sometimes grumpy, just turned 30 Guernsey born Uni lecturers and for that I thank you for getting it just so.
Jon Hickman
I’ve just hit exactly the same point today and understand the frustration. I usually scribble ideas for posts down when I think of them and now, when there’s actually a rare chance to write free, this list of ideas seems out-of-date or no longer relevant. Throwing out another post of recent delicious links, for example, just feels like an easy option and not actually adding any extra value.
There’s definitely ‘social pressure’ to blog frequently and, by the sounds of it in your post, a certain amount of self-imposed pressure to blog. You’ve certainly got plenty of interesting opinions and things to say (being a follower of your tweets).
As Jon says, just enjoy doing it and don’t worry about the frequency (or the pressure to be authoritative).
Gavin Wray