Friday 9 March 2007

The drive to blog

In March 2005 the BBC said there were 14.2 million blogs. By July 2005 the Blog Herald estimated 70 million blogs worldwide; that's 1% of the world population blogging away. I suspect the statistics - and why can't I find any current data? - are pretty poor; can blogs have increased by nearly 500% in just 4 months? But the message still stands - there are millions of folks blogging and I suspect far more are written than are read. Does this matter? What drives people to blog in the first place?
Do we talk less often face to face than we used to? Yes. Do we spend too much time by our computers and mobile phones (YES!) and still yearn for discussion, debate and thought even if there is no-one around or if people are there, they are also engaged with a flat screen and keyboard?
But there is also something very pleasing about the blog as a writing form. It forces you to shape your thoughts into some semblance of cogency. It makes you question your ideas before you commit them to screen. It makes you realise that some days demand whimsy and others require more serious cogitation. It has to be brief, which is a useful discipline. It also releases some of those juices for those who think they want to write but will never commit themselves to the full monty experience of a novel or other lengthy text. And its a fabulous way of sharing real stuff with friends that avoids those horrendous round robin Christmas letters.

4 comments:

Lies said...

Blogging is clearly driven by everyone's need to lie.

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you are a fan of the Simon Hoggart books full of 'round robins'.

Apparently he keeps getting letters from cross people telling him not to call them round robins, as these are actually letters written by disgruntled sailors which were signed round the edge, so that none of them could be identified as the ring leader...

Eurodog said...

I enjoyed reading your blog.
Please read mine:
http://eurodogtraining.blogspot.com
Whereabouts in Devon are you?
You will see from my blog that we might be neighbours.

Mopsa said...

Hi anonymous - yes, Simon Hoggart has greatly contributed to the good humour in the household come the bleakness of January.

Eurodog - I have a pair of Bernese - very much a big dog fan.