Friday, October 24, 2008

Why did you start blogging?

I've often wondered what circuitous route led all of you whose blogs I read to start a diary that's wide-open to the whole world. Sometimes I tell myself how crazy it is to type words on a screen about my life and my mundane activities, and expect that anybody would be interested.

I started connecting with people on the Internet in an AOL chat room. Not your typical one, though. It was a Christian chat room that you couldn't really enter directly, so it seemed as though not too many "crazies" made their way there. I spent way too much time chatting there, but I made some wonderful friends and had a lot of genuine rolling-on-the-floor-laughing moments, just from typed words scrolling up a screen.

The chat room went sour toward the end, with lots of bitterness and petty fussing. By the time AOL closed it, I had already left it behind.

I found some message boards that filled the void for me, and fully enjoyed them for a while. If I had a thought or a picture or two I felt I wanted to share with the folks on the forums, I'd post it there. But I hesitated to do this too much, because I didn't want to dominate a public forum with the drivel that is my daily life.

I saw one message board that was originally a country living site degenerate into arguments about religion and politics. I got the feeling that nobody wanted to hear my opinions anyhow, and I started my AOL journal. That way, nobody was forced to read what I had to say, and I didn't have to put any boundaries on myself.

I still feel this way: If you don't like what you see on a blog, don't run a smear campaign, as I've seen someone do with one of the most widely-read blogs on the Internet. Just don't go there, if you don't enjoy reading it.

I love the freedom of blogging, and I enjoy the new Internet buddies I've made in this way. I'm learning what life is like in Singapore, and I'm keeping up with folks in nearby Kansas City. Two mothers of young children are going through ordeals with a serious form of breast cancer (HERE and HERE), and I feel their fears as I read their blogs. I share in the adventures of a lady cab driver in Oregon. I read about the trials and tribulations of a cattle farmer I met on one of the above-mentioned message boards. I read the blogs of atheists and Christians and one Muslim, and I like them all. Or else I wouldn't read them.

I have to confess there are a couple of reads I can't add to the blog list on the left, due to the authors' tendencies to start some of their entries with certain four-letter words that would show up on my blog. But I still read them. They've not used any words, so far, that I haven't heard or read before.

So, why did YOU start blogging? Leave your answer in a comment or do an entry in your own space and let me know, so I can read it.

20 comments:

  1. Because of YOU, of course. But you know that story. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I started in 2006 with a blog about my trip to Italy with my wife. I did it so family could keep up with our travels. I managed to make a few posts from Italy. I have been blogging ever since.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous7:04 AM

    I blog now because aol nixed the journals...which you got me started doing...it is ALL your fault...LOL...and I enjoy it alot..but you have the wrong blog listed...my blog is now....and I will send it to you....via email..I miss the chatrooms a bit..but there are a couple I still enjoy from time to time..and interacting with folks I have never met..but would really like to...happy day to ya Donna...you bless me with each entry...hugs from Ora in KY

    ReplyDelete
  4. When I started blogging I didn't realize that there was a whole blogging community. I had been a sahm for some time and I hadn't written anything more challenging than a grocery list in eons. I searched on aol for some sort of diary thingy. I just started writing about our days.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I'd always kept a journal off and on throughout my life, I would have to go back to my first entry, but I'm pretty sure I'd just had my 3rd child and my husband was deployed or about to deploy and I needed a place to vent and share what I was going through with my friends, I had no clue what a large place it was going to turn into!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I read about the new trend of blogging in our local newspaper.

    I thought it was a great way to keep my important memories fresh as I tend to forget things easily. So I wrote what was important to me in detail for my own sanity at times.

    Along came Anne from Lopez Island Life who left the first comment ever in my blog and then introduced me to The Marching Band that Carol from A Revision created.

    From there, I began to open-up a little more and learn so much about many things from many people. I made lots of friends along the way, friends whose opinions matter.

    There are so many websites one can join, but blogging is the most honest and real journal I feel that I can be.

    ReplyDelete
  7. i never dreamed there was a community of people who blogged...i just started one for myself, to keep up with my dieting progress & backslips...then one day someone left a comment!!!
    that did it!
    huggies...

    ReplyDelete
  8. I think everyone already knows that I started journaling to keep in touch with my family which are widely scattered. They were all very close when they were home and missed the news from home. Along the way I like you have acquired a lot of new internet friends that I love to hear from. Your journal drew me in because we are close to the same age. Sometimes I feel as I'm the only one over 60 that I know of. Have a great Friday!

    ReplyDelete
  9. I used to have a local website where I wrote parodies of local news and events. Then I started writing professionally for a while and gave up the web site. Then I found a local blog one day that was written by someone I knew and it rekindled my interest in internet writing and I've been doing it now for two and a half years.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I started blogging b/c I like to write and AOL had a link to come up on the main page that said "Start your own AOL Journal". Me being the curious person that I am and also liking to write, I started one. Then someone commented. Then all our journals were being linked together and people signed up for alerts. One day I was highlighted on AOL as a "guest editor" and then that opened up even more readers. Then we learned to add photos and I got into digi camera and then graphics and PSP and all that and made lots of friends too. It's been the best hobby ever. Hubby is pleased that I love it so much. I guess it keeps me coming home to him every night all safe and sound. lol Instead of having business dinners or going out with friends. lol

    ReplyDelete
  11. I heard about blogging on my local news. They were talking about the new fad (in 2006!) that was taking over the world wide web and I'd just gotten online in Nov. 2005. I decided to do a search for 'blog' and ended up at Blogger because it was free. I stumbled through signing up and ended up with my current main blog, Diane's Place.

    I was green as grass at anything to do with blogging and computers and html, but I've learned a lot in the last 3 years.

    I started my blog as a way to document my daily life for myself and my scattered family, but I soon made new friends, many of which are still blogging buddies nearly 3 years later.

    I've met a few of my blogging friends in real life, talked to some on the phone, traded addresses with many of them, and sent packages around the world as well as received gifts from them.

    I've helped celebrate births and mourn deaths and my friends have done the same for me. We've become an online family, and I love my friends.

    Bet that was more than you bargained for, LOL!

    Thanks for the birthday wishes, and I hope you have a great weekend, Donna! :o)

    Love and hugs,

    Diane

    ReplyDelete
  12. I started after a friend of mine showed me her blog. I liked the idea of being able to post a journal to have to look back on later, with pictures and what was going on in my life at the time.

    I hope I'm not one of the people who uses 4 letter words in the headlines! I always try to keep it decent with the text and pictures and when I post a video that has language I try to warn ahead of time just in case.

    I have read your journal/blog for a long time-it is always nice to keep up with everything and even though I don't really know you, I feel I know who you are and if we met in real life you would be the kind of person I would like to be around!

    Your short and sweet comments have been nice and a lot of the times they have made my day. Thanks :)

    ReplyDelete
  13. Anonymous6:28 PM

    Many years ago, I kept an old fashioned diary. I've still got them from 1972 and 1973-74.... (fun to read through once in a while!). So, even as a young woman, I enjoyed writing. I started blogging about 4 yrs ago, shortly after my mom died. I didn't want my blog to be a rundown of what I did that day and that week, instead I wanted it to be full of my thoughts. I haven't always kept to that plan, but I still love writing!

    ReplyDelete
  14. I started blogging after reading blogs of family members.

    I am an extreme introvert and a busy person--teaching, tutoring after work, working out, maintaining a few relationships.

    Like you, I enjoy reading blogs written by all kinds of people of all different lifestyles from all over the world.

    I think my blog is fairly boring. Not so much about me and my life, but more about random information that interests me.

    This is my first post on your blog. I lived in K.C., MO for 5 years (1973-1978). I attended Avila College and worked there after graduating, so reading your blog takes me back all those 30 years ago.

    I grew up in farm country in South Dakota with many family members being farmers and ranchers. Farming is a good life.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Anonymous10:21 PM

    I saw something on my welcome page and I clicked and I'm still clicking. I find it very different now then it was when I started on oct. 03. In fact I've clicked so much I'm having trouble commenting now. lol Paula

    ReplyDelete
  16. I started because I stumbled across journals one day. Your's was the first I ever read! After reading & Commenting on several for over a year...many encouraged me to start my own for a long time....but I felt that I didn't have anything to offer...I finally decided to start my own for me..sorta like a scrapbook of my memories. I'm so glad that I did, because I have met so many people that I adore & call my firends now. So, in a nutshell I owe it all to YOU. THANKS DONNA!

    ReplyDelete
  17. Interesting! Hmmmm... Well, once upon a time I used AOL as my access to the web. This was when I still used dial-up LOL! Anyway, I stumbled upon journals and read a couple... and came back and read a couple more and started 'alerts' for a couple that interested me. Eventually I was following quite a few and started to leave comments. Finally, someone (I don't remember who) convinced me I should give it a try myself. So I did. And, Adventures of an Eclectic Mind was born.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Your story sounds like my story...the chats, the message boards, and then morphing into blogging. I also began blogging to deal with a lot of emotional baggage I had when my dad had a devastating stroke. I had a blog to deal with all that...then, when it all got resolved, I began the one I have now at Blogger that deals with the here-and-now. From the age of 8 I'd had pen pals and once people converted over to emailing, snail mail has become almost obsolete. The friendships I have thru the blogosphere take the place of my pen pals. In fact, I still keep up with some years-long pen pals - one for over 30 years - by email now. I never thought I'd see such technology in MY lifetime, that's for sure.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Donna,
    I blogged about it. But you were the gentle soul that made it something I wanted to do.

    ReplyDelete
  20. hey donna thanks for visiting the alemanac!

    i really enjoyed visiting your blog today. i grew up in a small town back east with more cows then people so i can relate to some of what you are talking about.

    i really enjoyed your wal mart rant. i hate wal mart!

    i started blogging because i was going to go out of my mind otherwise.

    thanks again for the visit and i really think i threw the results on my 'are you good?' quiz - maybe my cat sat on the keyboard when i was wandering around my apartment looking for a pen or something as i often do in the midst of doing other things.

    xxmiss alaineusxx

    ReplyDelete

I love comments!