Why Do I Blog?

Dennis Mangan has brought up a fascinating question: why blog?

You can find some of my answers in looking at this post (I'm the one he quotes), but let's look at it a little more carefully.

Why blog? I haven't made much money on it (a few dollars for running some ads [independently] and a donation), and I don't reach that wide an audience, perhaps 70-100 on a normal day (my peak number of visits for a day was 399 for November 12, 2005). So what do I get out of it?

Well, most importantly I get the ability to speak my mind to an audience. Having been a long-time reader of newspaper editorials and a long-time watcher of all things opinion-related, I discover that I get piqued an awful lot. Therefore, it has great psychological and cathartic benefit to be able to state my own opinion in a situation, or to castigate someone else for (in my opinion) a stupid opinion.

I also notice that often a lot of things go unsaid, or in ome debates people tend to talk past each other with no one trying to reduce the point of disagreement to its essentials. For example, in the debate over emergency contraception, often the pro- and anti- EC sides will rgue with each other with no one laying out the issue that the question is whether or not EC acts post-fertilization. I like debate, but when there is an unspoken difference in premises on a topic, I find that extremely irritating, because the argument won't get anywhere until the difference is made explicit. I think that I have a talent for reducing things to basics (or at least, I have an unusually strong desire to bother to do so) and to explain what an argument is saying, and why it is saying it in a flawed way.

And some writers irritate me. Jack "Hack Kelly" Kelly being a primary example, for his credulous reporting of any claim that bolsters the case for war and for his utter disconnect from reality. I would only be talking to myself about this if it weren't for my blog. Telling someone off publicly feels really good even if your target doesn't pay any attention.

Another issue is that I have a very good memory and I like to be able to find old articles and opinion pieces and bring them to my readers' attentions. Often someone made a comment long ago that would be forgotten if someone did not bring it up again, and if I don't see anyone else doing it, sometimes it falls on me to do so.

Put another way, I feel that certain things need to be said, revealed, brought to the forefront of one's mind, and clarified. If I don't see other people doing it, it falls to me to do so.

Not that I am delusional enough to think that I make a large difference. But if I really feel that something needs to be said, it is a wonderful load of my mind to be able to actually say it. This is something that I have commented on before, but I think it needs to be explained in more detail.

Another benefit is that blogging forms a community. It may sound silly, but you actually get a sort of feeeling of camaraderie with other bloggers who agree with you on certain issues, or even with non-blogging commenters. Often you wind up connecting with multiple blogging communities which have not previously had much contact with one another. In any case, you get to talk to people who have similar ideas to your own, making you feel less alone out there. You also get a chance for people to tell you how much they admire your ideas (and to tell them how much you admire theirs) both of which cary an enormous psychological benefit.

And, of course, there is always the fact that this is probably my best chance to ever make anything out of my opinions. If I were to ever make money from editorializing, I would probably do so through the blog. If I were to ever convince a magazine to hire me for a piece, it would probably be through building a large audience on the blog that the magazine would covet. Likely? No. But as my blog is the one forum where I don't need someone else's permission to publish my opinions, I at least can peddle my opinions without the usual requirements of convincing someone to let me.

I guess I am still convinced somewhere in my mind that if I keep blogging hard enough, I will eventually get 20,000 visits a day or something, lots of donations and ads, and lots of referral fees. And of course, if I am delusional, blogging's still a fun way to spend my time.

That is all.