Can I be really honest? I'm having a bit of a crisis.
We were having a brainstorm session at work on Friday that continued today. They usually involve spider-diagrams, bits of paper pasted all over the room, whiteboard makers and a lot of coffee. I drink water though.
We started talking about blogs and a colleague spat out that she thought that a blog was just for malignant narcissists concerned with their own self-importance.
Then someone else chipped in and said that a blog was just an opportunity for lonely people to build monuments to themselves.
I interrupted and said that actually, if written well, a blog can be quite entertaining or funny or, in some cases, quite poignant.
But I was cut off with "I don't know why they don't just put the blogs down and go to the pub and talk to each other?"
So I log on now and in my head I hear "narcissist", "monument to your lonely self" and "obssessed with your own self-importance".
Just count, in any random blog post, how many times the word "I" appears. Maybe they (my colleagues) have a point?
It's like someone has come along with an oversized Hoover and just sucked all the fun out of this. The wind has been completely blown out of my sails.
And that's my "crisis".
Though again, what kind of person has crises about things that are centered around their own sense of self-importance?
I don't know what else to say really...?!
Monday 22 October 2007
Sucked out
Written by Bobby Vanquish at around 19:12
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7 comments:
A blog has two elements as far as I can tell.
a) A personal diary. People write personal diaries from very young ages and hard as I try I can't find anythign wrogn with that. You don't force your diary down people's throats - you don't blackmail them into reading it. It's there and if people want they type your address in their browser and read it.
b) Entertaining prose for others to read. Basically if you write a blog like yours (or mine) where you tell stories, make points, record ideas (and not a blog like other people have where they just publish porn or put music videos up etc), you are not too dissimilar to an author who writes a novel for people to read. Once again I can't see anythign wrong with producing (some type of) literature for people to enjoy.
If your coleagues had any point on earth whatsoever (which they don't) maybe a) we should have burnt Anne Frank's doary as soon as we found it because she's a self-indulgent bitch and b) we should have ignored anyone who ever wanted to write prose to entertain people from Shakespeare to Wilde.
FInally, if still not convinced, give me the contact details of those colleagues and I'll go around and have a debate with them. And punch their lights out too.
Gawd... always drama on a Monday it seems! Tell them to Fuck off. Simple.
Nah, too easy i suppose.
Don't let it bring you down, if you enjoy being part of something like blogging like others enjoy going to pub everyday or those that play Bingo all week long its all a hobby or an activity for some. So statistically (gawd did I spell that right) speaking they should piss off with there marketing meeting and go be analytical on how they plan to save there jobs which might be on the line. lol
I'm in a harsh mode today...hmmm
Loads of people absorb your stories into their lives as if they were stuck into Egoli, Neighbours, Eastenders or Bold & the Beautiful everyday on the box.
Its the irony of a soap, we live our lives according to it and so to they base them shows on our lives.
Keep writing as brush those thoughts aside.
Jesus, you're so full of crap, you narcissistic and lonely, lonely man.
eeewww. Bum Noises?
I have been feeling the same about my blog... go see the post... it takes it even one step further... when you do go to the pub with your blogs in hand.. whats the point?
For what it's worth, I think there are a number of superficial blogs out there where people are just looking for "praise" and "admiration" for the amazing stories they tell, or information they dig up, or whatever. But, there are a number of blogs out there which the author is truly opening him/herself up and showing vulnerability, which is not self-indulgent in the least, and rather quite humiliating.
If you wanted, I'm sure you could easily post only the positive things that happen in your life and this blog could potentially be what your co-workers were talking about. However, you choose to talk about the good, bad and ugly parts of your life, which is very refreshing and a big reason why I look forward to reading what you have to say.
Look at it this way. Diaries are paper written blogs. People have done them for years. One thing I've gotten from people who have kept them is that their reason for keeping them are all different. There isn't one reason to keep one.
There negatives they say about blogs may be true of some, but not of all. One size doesn't fit all.
I asked a woman at work once why she journaled so much on paper for many years, and she told me that she found it to be very therapuetic. I found it to be chore and not therapuetic for me at the time. So, who's right and who's wrong? We're both right.
You know, some people think that reading others blogs are a waste of time, but for me, I can go reading on and on and get not much out of it and then all of a sudden someone says something that really hangs with me and impacts me and gets me to think about something. So, for me... just reading a blog IS therapuetic.
You have no idea on which day you make an impact on someone. Maybe someone won't drink and drive a car at your advice etc.
I read your blog and say, "Ok, I like that part.... I should try and do more of that myself, .... or no,... that is not me... I should not do that one at all.
These people at work speak from their own viewpoint, but one size doesn't fit all.
This whole thing reminds me of something that happened to me once. I started a hobby and did it for fun. I was having fun with it. I collected collectables. I went to shows and premiers to see all the new collectibles that were coming out. My brother told me how dumb it was and what a waste of time and money it was.
His comments made me feel bad about what I was doing and although I rebounded with what I was doing I never got back to exactly the way I was before with it. Being excited etc. over it. But what I learned was from that was that if there was something that I realled enjoyed, not to just throw it out there for discussion with anyone as 1 out of the then people I talked to would have a negative opinion about it and I didn't want their bad energy and thoughts on the issue to cloud up my day. So, now, if there is something I have fun at doing, I don't discuss it with anyone so I can keep feeling that way about it.
Maybe that's an odd way of handling it, but it seems to work for me.
Keep doing your blog and know that there is someone out there who is getting something out of it.
Honestly, I don't even know you, will probably never meet you, but in some strange sort of way feel that I do know your or am getting to know you. As odd as it sounds, it makes me feel like I'm developing an friendship in some way. And I LIKE having new friends all the time.
Let's say you meet some people on here that you can just tell are good people and you like that and want to incorporate them into your life. If you have a problem, you just put it out there and ask them for advice. Isn't that what a friend is for? So, I'm around if you need to talk.....
P.S. I don't believe you are fishing for compliments at all with this post, but every now and then there isn't anything wrong with that either. We all need pats on the back from time to time as we are humans and need it.
Best wishes from the United States of America.
Carl
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