blogcutter

I've been pondering this one for quite a while. There are of course many kinds of writing and many different purposes that may be associated with each. Here I'm going to focus on what's probably the most personal one, an individual's diary or journal. What is its purpose? How does the paper-based version relate to its online version in the form of a blog? An article that appeared in Lithub earlier this year got me seriously thinking about this:

https://lithub.com/on-the-sanctity-of-a-journal-on-private-writing-in-the-age-of-public-content/

Like many young people, I started keeping a diary some time in adolescence. I wrote regularly (though not daily) in it throughout my teens and into my early twenties. Sometimes I'd write pages and pages at a time, and not again for weeks on end. Other times I'd write for several days in a row, either briefly or at length.

But then, as the demands of my studies and jobs and youthful shenanigans and adult responsibilities assumed centre stage, the journaling trailed off entirely, except for the occasional special-purpose journaling: travel, pregnancy, dreams, books read, scraps of dreadful poetry...

After retirement, I once again had some spare time. Not as much as I'd envisioned, perhaps, but still...

And that's when I started this blog. I quickly realized that an online blog is not quite like its paper-based cousin.

A central question I grappled with was WHY I was doing it. Was it for myself? For the blogosphere at large? For my own circle of present and future friends, family and acquaintances, geographically near and far?

Then came COVID and lockdowns and more time at home. Although I'm definitely on the introvert side of the personality scale, I still have that need for connection with others. And the need to make a difference, to have some impact, at least in small individual and local ways, when everything seems hopeless and we feel helpless to work towards the changes we wish for.

If you're a "pantser" or a stream-of-consciousnss type of writer, then perhaps blogging is the ideal medium for you. Maybe the so-called social media are even more ideal. But for those of us who prefer to plot and plan and think before we speak, blogging involves some adjustments, perhaps in scrawling notes and organizing them a bit before going online, or perhaps in trying to be a little more spontaneous when writing.

Spontaneity certainly has its risks, however, as we see with some of the vicious backbiting and flame wars that occur on social media. Do we censor ourselves in online blogging? I'm pretty sure I do, and sometimes quite unconsciously. It's one thing to do a thought dump on paper when you can always shred it later or even if you don't, there may be very little chance of it falling into the wrong hands. It's quite another thing if your words are misconstrued and you end up being fired, excommunicated, deported, sued for hate speech, libel or worse! Yes, I know you can adjust your privacy settings and stuff, but ultimately there are still these "forever technologies" threatening to take over the world...

I guess there are uses for both the paper-based and the online versions, depending on what you want to do and what sort of audience you are aiming for, amongst other things. The medium is certainly not independent of the message, but I'm not quite convinced that it IS the message, either!