Thursday, May 19, 2005

If a Tree Falls in the Woods...

So, now that I've joined the blogging world, I've been checking out other people's blogs. And it makes me wonder: why are we doing this? It seems like there are five different kinds of bloggers out there:

1) Commercially successful writers, artists, etc., with a following who are interested in every word that drips from the writer's lips (or keyboard, as the case may be).

2) Commercially unsuccessful writers (ahem) who are trying to drum up any kind of following so that their next venture might be commercially successful. (See, Ms. Editor? I get three hits a day. Over a year, that adds up to tens of unique readers!)

3) Folks who want to keep in touch with their multitude of friends, but can't possibly send out individual e-mails, so they post their lives online.

4) Folks who have loads of opinions about, well, everything, and feel guilty about inundating their close circle of friends/family with them.

5) People who are hoping their posts will appeal to other people and amuse for a moment. Kind of like when you make a mix tape for someone -- while trying to entertain and please the recipient, you're also kind of trying to show them how cool and eclectic you are (see Nick Hornby's "High Fidelity").

Honestly, the only people who will check this out are the people who already know me. And then, it's kind of a controlled voyeurism. Sure, we control what we put out there, but we don't know who's seen it. Or when. We only know this when someone posts a response.

So, if a woman posts her life, does anybody read it?

Wow. Who put existentialism in my coffee this morning?

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