I’ve asked myself this several times, both before I started this blog and after. I started it both from boredom and a desire to know why this was so great.
I think I’ve got an answer.
Free time is clearly a large part of it. There’s so little on this site because I have classes, creative writing, guitar, a cat, several video games, and friends to occupy my time.
But here is the bigger reason why I can’t get into this: Being in my 20s, I’m just old enough to place more value on face-to-face communication than the by-proxy sort the internet provides. Now don’t get me wrong, I use the internet to communicate a LOT, perhaps more than I should. There are some situations where I actually rely on the limitations of text to help me through it. Alas, this sort of one-way communication doesn’t quite stand up there with IMs in the tiers of usefulness, and AIM was sorta low down there anyway.
Admittedly, part of this may be my lack of viewership: it’s hard to have dialogue on the internet anyway, so my uninteresting posts don’t facilitate it.
In real life, however, I don’t need to cater to interests or a niche to have a conversation or debate. People hang out with their friends for the very reason that they don’t want control of every conversation, don’t want to pander to a base or limit their focus, and want the other parties to have their own chance at guiding the topic. The only time this format works is in a classroom setting, and even then you need a very good teacher to take advantage of it.
“But what about other blogs?” you halfheartedly argue? Clearly specialization is the main reason they succeed, and in this time of ever-more-prominent media bias, they may have a niche to fill there too. Volume is another part of it. But they aren’t really my bag. I did tell myself to treat this blog as a sort of public journal, and I probably still will (I am posting this), but I’m glad I’ve finally come to understand my relationship with blogs more concretely.
Twitter is still the worst thing mankind has ever done to its ability to communicate. Facebook/myspace/et. cetera is still full of superficial attempts at friendship. Both still make me wish for the days of no internet, but then I’d miss all my tvtropes and porn.
One day perhaps we may find a good balance.
Random Hijinks 