The purpose of blogging
This is something I have been thinking about for some time. What are blogs supposed to be for, and who makes the rules?
I was first given a “column” on studentssocial, back when people visited, and it was just a place for me to write something interesting, for our group of friends. When I became very ill it became a way for me to comunicate with everyone about what was happening, and to try to educate people about depression a bit more. And then I kept it updated with my progress from drug to drug, incase anyone cared, or it could help anyone out.
So now I’m left with a new blog, which certainly taught me some css, but not knowing what to write about. Of the blogs I read, the majority combine non-personal posts about their life, and information about the next technological craze, or programming hack. Whilst most of what I want to write about is my depression.
So, do I continue writing about my various treatments, and bore everyone to tears. Or do I stop writing altogether? Can I write about my feelings and struggles, or would that turn me into an attention seeker? Public opinion matters to me far more than it should, but I need to know how people see me, and my blog.
January 10th, 2006 at 6:58 pm
I think the only real rule for blogs is “write about what’s interesting”. Whether this means you should write about what you find interesting or what others will find interesting isn’t really clear: I suspect it’s a bit of both.
I’m pretty certain that in your case writing about your feelings and personal life wouldn’t count as attention seeking, principally because the posts you make tend actually to have a point: they tend to be asking a fairly specific question or detailing a particular event (such as a drug change). “LiveJournal syndrome” posts, from what I’ve seen, tend to be along the lines of “I got given too much homework, my life is so awful; I’ve written a poem; I bought some crisps today”.
Probably also worth bearing in mind that (at a rough guess) the majority of those who read your blog are you friends, and so content about how you’re doing is going to be of significant interest to them…
January 11th, 2006 at 1:32 am
I wouldn’t be at all worried about sounding like an ‘attention seeker’ for writing about how you feel. I know the opinions of strangers can seem strangely important when writing things on the internet, but most of the people who come by and choose to read posts on depression won’t.
Sure, there are people who’d only post personal information for attention or sympathy or somesuch, but you’re not one of them and I think you can be confident in that.
This is your blog, it has personality, truth and integrity. It’s not LiveJournal as Fatty says, nor is it (worse) MySpace. I think you can post anything you like knowing that the image of this site won’t encourage anyone to think “attention seeker” or anything similar.
January 11th, 2006 at 8:22 pm
I agree with what the guys just said; people can write what they want on their blogs, and yours is a way for you to communicate with your friends and to keep them up-to-date with how you are doing and feeling, which is a god thing and certianly not attention seeking!
The fact is your blog is a personal one, so you shouldn’t worry about what the ‘general’ public think, only your friends, and we like to know how you are doing! And none of us see you as an attention seeker!