There but for the grace of ...

[dolorosa_12]

Interesting link today on westerfeld_blog about blogging addiction. Questions? Comments? Thoughts?

Comments

[stephstar.livejournal.com]

People blog for all sorts of reasons: they're bored, sentimental, simply enjoy writing, for therapeutic value, friendship or like the article points out attention received online can feel gratifying.

I found it strange though that she talked about blogging almost like it was a performance and her readers were the live audience. I don't think you can write a personal diary type blog and combine it with a stage like amplification. It's bound to end in tragedy.

As for blogging addiction, well I've never really understood it. I don't understand why some people start a blog and then get tired of it whilst others *coughmecough* can write for years and it still feels brand new.

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yes. I think, as with everything, the question is one of scale and degree. I think that the problem for that author was that her blog was so widely-read, and she had a masochistic (or possibly self-absorbed) obsession with reading the comments.

People tend to get emotionally invested in their blogs, and if your blog is read by more than a smallish circle of online and rl friends, it's bound to get ugly.

You need to have more internal resilience than that woman appeared to have. And perhaps a stronger conception of what and what isn't oversharing. You need to know in your head, when you blog, what is too much information. She was sadly unable to do so.

[stephstar.livejournal.com]

ok double comment = officially ranting. But I thought this was relevant, at least to explain why some people are addicted to reading blogs --> http://xkcd.com/367/

[dolorosa-12.livejournal.com]

Yeah, like all of xkcd, so true.