On the nature of blogging

I had planned on using the second post to tell you some facts about me. You know, the kind of anecdotes that, while not giving any real information, would convey some sketches of my personality. That is postponed for the moment. Instead, you get my thoughts on blogging.

This change of plans was brought by an unexpected visit to the blog (if you’re wondering whether I mean you in particular, I don’t). Someone who I hadn’t considered as a potential reader commented to me about my new blog. I was dumbfounded. This was not my intended audience.

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have been surprised at all. Anyone with a computer and some kind of connection can come here and read everything I have written. It never occurred to me that I wouldn’t cherry pick who reads what. This is stupidly obvious, but it didn’t sink in until this happened, leaving me feeling a bit exposed and wondering about what that meant to what I planned to write here.

There were two situations that concerned me. The first was that some complete stranger would read me. This must have been a side-effect of a healthy ego: the overwhelming majority of people out there couldn’t care less about my blog and me and, in the odd chance that they do, I don’t care about what they think of it.

The other problem would be that people who I know, but who I wasn’t aware knew about this place, came here. After thinking it over, I realized this was a moot point. This is the internet, after all. I’m not having a private conversation; I’m standing on a room filled with people shouting at the top of my lungs. I wouldn’t be sharing anything that I would want to keep secret from the world to begin with.

So now, with this deep thinking about the nature of blogging and my feelings about it out of the way, let’s see what comes next.