Why bother beginning a blog?
Three reasons
Why I started this blog website
Introduction: The idea of blogging
For years I’ve been pondering whether I should start a blog or not. When seeing how creative and useful other people’s blogs were, I wondered how they did it and whether it was something for me. To be honest, it looked like such a drag to be present online 24/7. That was until I realised that bloggers weren’t really online that often to begin with. It was me, you or anyone who’s on the internet that was online at that moment, finding the time and interest to read their stuff. No one pushed it in front of us or forced us to read it. No, we happened to find it, because the World Wide Web keeps the content ready and loaded 24/7.
Blogging has more to do with writing than with posting and keeping it online. And that is precisely why it has grabbed my interest.
The benefits of blogging
Creating a writing habit
Over the past four years writing has played a major role in my life. In my student years I noticed that writing helped me sort out my thoughts. It made life easier to understand. But at the same time it made life more difficult as well. Because as much as I Ioved writing, I hated it just as much. In my daily life I’m a big proponent of quality over quantity. The same applies to writing.
I’d rather write one page of something worthwhile than twenty pages full of fluff. The only problem is that very often in order to reach that one golden page you need to dig your way through twenty pages of dirt.
Following this universal law in writing I was in somewhat of a pickle. In order to reach my standard of quality I needed to improve my quantity. I needed to start writing, and A LOT. I’ve tried numerous times to start a writing habit, but I always failed after a week or two. At first I’d scribble furiously in my notebooks, but page after page and day after day I started to lose that intensity. Coherent chunks of text would scatter into fragmented half-assed ideas. I never wrote towards a goal and neither did I feel any pressure to do so. My writing had no real purpose, because it was never really intended to reach a bigger audience.
With online blogging that’s different. This content is going to be exposed to the whole wide world. Not that I feel huge amounts of pressure, but still, it creates a sense of accountability. The thought of people reading (or skimming) my texts pushes me to write them as clear as I can. That brings me to my next point.
Self-actualisation
By writing more and towards a finished text I hope to keep my mental space cleaner. I’ve always been a big believer in the healing powers of writing. When we think silently in our head we leap from one thought to the other. We don’t finish our first thought or we’re already on to the next one. Before you know it you’ve spiralled into a place you never intended to be in. At a younger age I’d get frustrated at myself because of this. I’d sporadically come up with good ideas, but I would either leave them unfinished or forget about them entirely. I’ve always thought that the mind is great at coming up with ideas, but horrible at remembering them. Technology is an excellent tool to complement the mind.
By writing you both slow down the thinking process and document your train of thought. This allows you to think more coherently.
Coherent thoughts lead to a coherent self. I feel more in tune with who I am and how I feel. Every time I write something down and reread it I have the chance to self-actualise.
By wondering: “Is this really how I feel about this?” or “Are these really my original thoughts on this topic?” you form a stronger sense of identity. You transpose your ephemeral thoughts and feelings into a linguistic mould. And true, language is inherently a flawed system to translate human emotions with, but until we figure out how telekinesis works, It’ll probably be the best tool there is.
Have a bigger reach
On my instagram page I have a reach of about 700 people. Not bad, but that number disappears compared to the 4.6 billion users on the internet. Ever since the rise of social media people have become less social and more media. The WWW. turned the world into a village. Everyone can reach out to almost anyone. As much as I hate this fragmentation of the world, it can’t be argued what a superpower the internet is.
I want to use social media in a literal social way. I’m willing to put myself out there for all those 4.6 billion people. My goal is not to reach all of them, that’d be stupid. My goal is to reach at least one person. Someone who reads my stuff and finds it useful in their life. The internet is filled to the brim with people writing horribly, so why shouldn’t I fill it up some more with (in my opinion) decent stuff?
Throwing your thoughts, interest and emotions on the internet exposes you to so many new, and especially unexpected opportunities. David Perell talks about a blog serving as a Serendipity Vehicle. Your content (when well written and updated regularly) becomes a vehicle that brings you to locations you can’t even imagine. I see blogging as a form of uploading my mind to the internet. This vehicle drives you all around the world, even when you’re sleeping, and introduces your mind to all sorts of people.
People often don’t know what they want, because they can’t imagine everything that is possible in the world. But the more people you reach while being completely honest, the bigger the chances are you’ll get in touch with something/someone that is a perfect fit for you (not per se romantically, although that’s not excluded.)
Conclusion: Anyone (including I) can do it!
I learned that in order to blog you don’t need to be a digital SEO creative content copywriter (or whatever those new fancy job titles are.) To be a blogger you have to be a human first. Check! Secondly you need to be a thinker. Check! How well your blog works out depends on how well of a writer you are. That is, how coherent you can form and structure your thoughts. Check-ish! All the other stuff is fluff, make-up. Some like it black, some like it blue and to that there’s nothing you can do…
Blogging is no talent, it’s a skill, meaning anyone can learn it! Maybe this entire blogpost will be my shame post in a couple of years, but I’ll never know until I actually give it an honest shot. This right here is my first real shot.
This time I’m not overthinking it. I’m going for it! Are you coming along with me?
P.S. I have a friend who sends me random quotes. This one’s from Elise Downing’s Coasting (2021)
“You don’t have to be strong enough on day one to get to year ten.”
At the time it seemed rather useless, but here it is serving its purpose. I hope this blog will live on to have the same fate!
Blog out!
Durim Morina, Ostend, 26 nov. 2021
