There are a few altruistic souls who maintain websites as a service; a few persons that just like to write, but mostly what I see on the web is that it is being used for self-promotion. I suppose it’s understandable. People, if they enjoy writing at all, mostly write to their friends, and for that they don’t need websites. There is social media, messengers and what have you. So the open web becomes a marketplace.
Lately I have been growing bored with even my alternative social media. Sometimes it’s nice to feel that others are seeing one’s content; yet just as people are lazy about writing, they tend to be lazy about reading, or even viewing material produced by others. And this is understandable too.
Initially, or each time I return to social media, I tend to share more in the beginning, till gradually it peters off. Eventually I end up mainly commenting or sharing what others have shared. It gets a bit stale. I do enjoy the alternative social media as a source of new information.
Sometimes I’ve permitted Google and search engines to include my content, and at other periods I’ve used the noindex nofollow flags. But for the greater part of its existence, the blog has been private or undiscoverable.
So why, in fact, maintain a blog, other than for the perfectly legitimate purpose of self-promotion? I think a blog can be a place where one can broadcast, in a non-intrusive way, what one feels, thinks, believes in, is going through, has experienced, wishes to relate, etc. It is not “in your face” like social media. Indeed it is so far removed from being “in your face” that it is likely that no one ever sees it. But it’s out there none the less.
So, here is my blog, my stash of thoughts, ruminations, feelings and reminiscences. Boring or interesting, common or unusual, uniquely my own in their combination, whatever.