the art of blogging

i've been lazy to update because i've been updating my Livejournal more. it's more fun over there. it's a community of different personalities: artists, poets, writers, or simply geek bloggers/pseudo philosophers who rant about anything under the sun. blogging is not just this-is-what-i-did-today writing. it varies, actually. this topic reminds me of the article on Young Star titled "Blog Shmog". the huge fonts of the title caught my eye so i read it. the writer criticized the idea of blogs and bloggers. he said he does not get what the big fuss over the art of blogging is about. he asked the question of why people would even publish their lives online for the entire world to read. he said he has more valuable time to read websites that are more intellectually stimulating or interesting for his taste and all that jazz. i sensed arrogrance in his article and wanted to crumple the paper into a ball and toss it into the trash can. then i saw the email address on the bottom of the article. i wanted to write him a letter explaining the idea of blogs from the viewpoint of a blogger. perhaps he needs an email so that he will experience an epiphany and realize how much of an airhead he was generalizing the very idea of blogging.

so why do people blog, you ask?

it's not that we bloggers are in dire need of attention nor do we want to show off how grand or pathetic our lives are. most bloggers i know love the idea of venting or just writing. i can't say all bloggers are "writers". like me. i like to write and i am an opinionated person but that doesn't mean that i claim to be a writer or a good one at that. it just so happens that my brain thinks about the most trivial things and then i feel the impulse to write about my random musings. other times i just feel like writing about anything under the sun because it is what relaxes me and makes me feel lighter when i'm stressed out or in dire need of venting. i started out blogging by this-what-i-did-today entries and then gradually my blogging evolved into more significant posts like my pseudo-philosophical pondering on my life or life in general.

blogs these days have powerful influences on the readers. blogs can be used to send out messages to people-- issues that need empowerment, knowledge that need to be shared to people, or share opinions on particular subject matters. it's all about the way of sharing it or bringing out the message to the readers that make blogs all the more interesting than just daily past-times.

my friend Paolo mentioned once that he doesn't know why he does it but he likes browsing blogs of people he doesn't even know. my other friends, on the otherhand, read my blog because they just feel like updating on what's going on with me. after telling Van that i thought about closing this blog down and writing locked entries on Livejournal instead, she stopped me and said that she won't be able to read about how i am anymore. yes, we're friends in the "real world", this physical world and not the cyberworld, but what i write on my blog is usually the more intimate thoughts that i fail to talk about sometimes. or maybe my friends just can't have enought of me (HAHA! just joking).

to make the long story short: i did not write the author of that YS article about how stupid and narrow-minded i think he is for generalizing the act of blogging and for criticizing bloggers too. i remembered the phrase "to each his own". people have different perspectives on things and our opinions often clash. so i figured maybe that's how pathetic he thinks blogging is so leave him be.

i just wish he didn't criticize the act of blogging and judging bloggers as if they had no other important things to do and no life to live. for your information, many of us have busy tasks on our hands-- thesis to write, exams to study for, and mad researching to do. that's why we blog often-- to take a breather and remember to ponder on our lives instead of being carried away by the strong currents of the river we're navigating our boats on. we want our opinions to be heard and our blog is where we turn to. or maybe sometimes we just love to write that much which is why we rant about the most trivial things sometimes.

oh, dear. i really hope he gets to stumble into this. and he should be thankful i forgot his address and his name even if i still read the Young Star section of the paper every week. he doesn't matter anyway. people who disrespect other people's opinion just because it is different from their own is just sad.

so there. i'll just leave him with his opinion and respect whatever he wrote there (even if it seems like i'm badmouthing him right this very moment). i just wish he'd leave us, blogger geeks, alone too.

whatever happened to respect, anyway?