Towards a Description of Blogging
Lorelle on WordPress has this week issued a challenge to describe blogging and how it effects one’s life.
Explaining to the uninitiated exactly what defines a blog can be daunting. My most recent attempt to do so came about when the manager of my school objected to my writing about the school on my personal blog, Goodnight Phuket. When I explained that it was how I communicated to my friends and family about my life in Thailand he asked, “Why can’t you just send them email?”
Wikipedia defines a blog as “a website where entries are written in chronological order and displayed in reverse chronological order,” but that really isn’t very satisfying. It also goes on to say: “Blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject such as food, politics, or local news; some function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, web pages, and other media related to its topic.” Well, okay.
But to tell somebody that we are writing an online journal just leaves people scratching their heads. As Kevin over at No Good Deed Goes Unpunished comments, “The thought of keeping a journal that anyone could read was I think to them, a combination of creepy, egotistical and self-indulgent all at the same time.”
I might define my own blogs as more like online scrabooks than merely journals. My first attempt at blogging was just over three years ago (15 June 2004, to be exact) on ‘Burque Blog. Originally subtitled “Ramblings from the Land of Enchantment” and later “The View from the Northeast Heights,” it chronicled my life and interests as a retail service manager in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The previous year I’d traveled to Europe and Asia for the first time and I was particularly interested in China. Not only did I write about my wanderlust for further journeys and my day-to-day activities but I also gathered articles and photos I found interesting from other online sources. Much like I do now (although with admittedly less focus).
Blogging, for me, is more of an outlet for me to share my widely-varied interests not only with family members and close friends but to anyone who happens to come by. Nowadays, that includes posting anything I deem “scrapbook-worthy” about my adopted home of Thailand — positive or critical (although I certainly don’t dwell on the latter). Aside from the news items (gathered in one place seems more practical than dozens of bookmarks) I most enjoy sharing about about this country that I know will surprise and delight the folks back home in middle America. The culture tips and travel guide entries in particular are directed towards my sister and father to prepare them for upcoming visits to the “Land of Smiles.” To have these sorts of things archived in a blog makes them more easily available than hidden away among dozens of emails in my opinion.
Blogging also gives me an opportunity to research and share my discoveries on many things I didn’t previously know about. Since moving to Phuket in April 2006 I’ve been interested in learning more about the myriad of Thai holidays. But they would often come and go before I could find out why the bank or post office was closed on the day that I absolutely needed money or to mail a letter. I included a list of the holidays on my mjochim.com website last year (I’ve since let the domain expire as blogging has become my chief online interest) but, apart from providing links to further information, I didn’t delve too deeply into the significance of these special days.
Now that I’m teaching and many of the holidays are either a day off or an in-school celebration I can blog about the special days by explaining their backgrounds and then describing how we mark them. Thus, I’m learning and educating at the same time. Not only do I have a better understanding about the history or religious significance of the day but I know that some of my fellow teachers appreciate my research. When we have an assembly marking the occasion we can thus understand more of the nuances even if we don’t always understand the language (it’s often a source of frustration that our school assemblies are conducted predominately in Thai without any effort at an English translation; even those farangs who have learned more Thai than the average EP teacher have trouble following along).
Even in trying to come up with a suitable description of blogging, I feel I can’t top this eloquent definition posted at CSS on WordPress:
To me blogging is the passionate expression of a persons thoughts, ideas and creativity to list a few. A bloggers main objective is to entertain and stimulate other individuals minds through the process of writing. Blogging provides an outlet for a somewhat shy person like me to share my thoughts and become a member of a rapidly growing community of others who share that same passion, that desire, to inspire the minds and possibly brighten the days of thousands of people around the world. A blogger holds his or her fate between their fingers and the keyboard and yet everyday they continue to risk everything they’ve gained to satisfy their readers one article at a time. So that to me is what a true blogger is, a passionate selfless individual with a divine need to create something great for other people and all I can say is keep doing what your doing!
Consider the comments made by Kamigoroshi on Footsteps in the Mirror in which writes that “Blogging is a reflection in the mirror of what we want to show to the world,” and “a marker for improvement.”
Blogging is no different from real life. You are who you are in your blog. Whether it be your expression of feelings, your opinions in commentary or your product as a business. Your blog is a place to be free to express it all. At the same time it is the place where your expression can be expressed upon. With freedom comes the awareness that you’re not the only one in the world with the same thought, neither is your thought the only one in the world.
To me, that’s the best definition of all. Blogging ultimately comes from within and reflects who you actually are. If you’re not excited about your blog nobody else will be either. A blog is an opportunity to share what’s inside of you. Focus that and let it out for the world to judge and (hopefully) comment on. That’s always better just writing email…
