What is this blogging trend, anyway? Where, when and how did it begin? I should think up some cruel and unusual punishment for the one who started it. I’m willing to bet the first ever blogger found him or herself fascinating and wanted everyone to share in that opinion. What better way than to write down every thought that came into his head and post it on the Internet thereby further building his own ego word by word? Could this be the same individual who convinced the American public that having a cell phone pressed to one’s ear at all times would perpetuate the myth of our individual popularity?
I’ve got news for all of you who are reading and/or writing blogs. Many of us are, quite simply, not that interesting. My thoughts about my day-to-day life are probably not much different than anyone else’s. My moments of intellectual depth are fleeting at best. I’m afraid anything I might say about them would be no more profound than the next guy’s. My father used to quote the English poet Samuel Johnson: “It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.”
Where did that old adage “Silence is Golden” come from? Someone very wise, I’m sure. Someone who knew that perhaps we do not need to share with all and sundry every single opinion, idea or rant that comes into our minds.
A reminder for me to post on this blog arrived via e-mail a week ago. My immediate thought was, “Oh, no, what am I going to blog about? I’ve got absolutely nothing to say.” (Thus the title for this blog.)
It isn’t even that I have nothing to say. It’s the fear someone else has already said it, probably better than I could. I save my original thoughts and ideas (few and far between though they may be) for my works of fiction. I don’t want to use them all up writing a blog that will be found boring and unoriginal!
Are we all simply trying to boost our self-esteem by writing what we think are fascinating blogs? Are we desperate to share something of ourselves, hoping someone will listen, care, comment? Perhaps the Communication Age has so isolated us that blogging is the result of our very human desire to reach out and touch someone. Anyone.
To me blogging is the written version of the cell phone phenomenon. The belief that you must be available to anyone who wants or needs you 24/7 is nothing more than an ego in need of stroking combined with an over-inflated sense of self-importance. Are we now equating our self-worth to the number of cell phone calls and text messages we receive?
I’m amazed at the number of people who always seem to be on a cell phone. They can’t order a cup of coffee without telling the person on the other end to hold on a minute. How can anyone be that popular? Who are they talking to? Secretly I believe that there’s often no one on the other end of that supposed cell phone call. Days go by and my cell phone doesn’t ring which is fine by me. I don’t need constant contact with family, friends and co-workers to discuss in minute detail ever tiny facet of my life or theirs.
Whatever happened to elusiveness? What happened to an air of mystery? Wasn’t it the actress Greta Garbo who uttered that famous line, “I want to be alone.”? (Although when I went to look up the quote, apparently what she actually said was, “I never said ‘I want to be alone.’ I only said, ‘I want to be left alone.’ There is all the difference.” Maybe we should all take a cue from her and give blogging a break. Give our poor overworked brains a break. Get it through our heads that every thought we have does not need to be shared and that we are not quite as brilliant and popular as we like to think we are.
While we’re taking a break from reading or writing blogs, maybe we could also turn off our cell phones and spend an hour doing something truly valuable. Something small that makes the world a better place. Maybe we could do it without telling anyone. That golden glow we’d feel afterward might just be the result of blessed silence.
I don’t find blogging easy, although their are many that do. I admire the way they can make the ordinary interesting.
Cell phones…I don’t get how people can be on the phone that much. On the bus, walking down the sidewalk, at the checkout, while their driving…
I am guilty of texting. In my writing, I sound funnier, smarter, and more sexy that I feel I am in real life. I can flirt easier through texting than I can in person. Texting gives me that minute to think, to develop what I have to say.
But blogging drives me nuts. I have them, but I never know what to put. Should it be deep and philosophical? Fun and flippy? I have moments of both, but mostly I end up not blogging for days because I find it boggling.