One of my friends recently asked me that question: Why blog?
My response was pretty long, and pretty rambling… but it can be boiled down to the following, which I suppose is a kind of mission statement or even a Blogger’s Manifesto.
The following is therefore my, well, whatever it is… Mission Statement or Blogger’s Manifesto or whatever.
I blog because my thoughts are interesting. If you don’t believe me, I can show you my site traffic information, showing thousands of people come here every month. Failing my refuge in that, I can show you my thoughts. You can judge for yourself, and if you don’t like them, you can always not return. But I bet that if you’re the kind of person who would like me, you will like my blog. And that’s all that matters.
I blog because my life story is the thing I know best. I know it better than building a stereo case, I know it better than writing rock songs, I know it better than how to make Indian Butter Chicken… but nothing stops me from doing those things. So why should I not say the thing my deepest self sings to me? There is no reason not to listen… there is no reason not to speak.
I blog because I have something to say, and something to learn. When people read what I think, they don’t only get exposed to me. They get exposed to my ideas, and perhaps they will think critically about my ideas… and maybe they’ll later think critically about their own ideas. Maybe they will respond, as well, and this will teach me to think critically of my ideas.
I blog because I can. This is the first time when, for practically free (actually, literally for free), people can self-publish and self-distribute to a worldwide audience. I have readers, even if they are accidental or occasional, in Myanmar, India, France, Australia, Brazil, and China. Never would I have imagined reaching people in these places within minutes of writing something.
I blog to record my life, which matters, dammit. There are enough pressures on us to dismiss our own lives as unimportant, irrelevant, or somehow inadequate. My voice, my life, my thoughts, and my feelings are more than valid: they are worth celebrating, cataloguing, recording, and sharing.
And so I blog.