What is blogging?

April 27, 2008 | Justin

I’ve been reading a lot of various blogs lately, mainly to try and get some inspiration for yet another site design (it’s really a never ending cycle). But reading the various blogs out there I’ve been trying to determine what exactly a blog is. Some people cover their whole lives on their blogs while others are more reserved and blog mostly about random musings and interesting thoughts. I’ve always looked at blogging at a bit of a hybrid of the two but tend to keep most personal stuff out of it. I doubt it’d be that interesting but at the same time I’d rather not broadcast everything to the world. But maybe I’m wrong. What is a blog? Why do people blog? Why am I being so introspective on a Sunday night? Why do I keep asking questions?

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2 Responses to “What is blogging?”

  1. Nick Tabick

    April 28th, 2008 | 2:54 pm

    Well, you can think of it in terms of where the term ‘blog’ comes from… ‘Weblog’ basically means a log available on the Internet…the choice of what qualifies as a ‘log’ is up to the maintainer(s).

    At one point I used to post more personal stuff (back when I was piggy-backing off a friend’s hosting account). Some people find it really interesting (especially friends and family), while others pass over it. If you really don’t care about who sees it (or if you decide you want to keep it completely private), by all means, post your feelings out. Other people post random musings or general tips that appeal to a wide audience, but may not be as interesting or integrated fully into their lives; in my case, I now try to relate my posts to my life without being emotional about it. (And for the record, I’ve never been one to really publicize my feelings.)

    I guess the issue you (and myself too, even) is that the word ‘blog’ is just too young to really have a formal definition, if it will even get one, which is why just about anything these days qualifies as one.

  2. Justin

    April 29th, 2008 | 2:29 pm

    Maybe that’s the thing, you can make it mean whatever you want it to mean. There’s something voyeuristic about the “personal” blogs though, almost like we shouldn’t be reading them. What a strange thing this internet is.

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