Jamie Antonisse

Julian's "why do I blog this?" interested and irritated me for long. On one side, it is as if he is making a note to self and that is cool, the other side, it feels like he implies that nobody else does write with intent and somehow that diminishes the importance of their thoughts. (don't bite me yet julian-reflecting my own insecurities here)

I am torn and insecure: It has never been a secret that I write a lot, some of which nobody cares to read and some of it is just boring or irrelevant to anyone else but me. I wrote the copy on my personal sites like a blog long before there were blogs, as did many people of internet 0.5 and internet 1.0. Is it a crime that not every single word has intent, persistence or even relevance? Don't we sift through masses of crap on the internet anyway? Why is my crap worse than anybody elses? (selfish thinking which should not be applied freely or we are all doomed)

Sometimes, I feel that accepting comments on the blog is pointless when you're a nobody like me. I learned not to leave comments open on obituaries because the first one I posted ended up in a ridiculous heated discussion about politics and that pissed me off and woke me up: people DO read and they CAN post what they think, and sometimes I may not want to hear what they have to say...(yet I am perfectly ok subjecting them to what I have to say...)

The beauty of the blog is "do not accept comments". It is a legit thing to do. Don't you ever turn off your cell phone and not accept calls? (except for me...the phone is always on, yet I turn off comments...hypocrite)

Then there is the occasional paranoia of "what will be people think when I lay all my random laundry out there?". On some online board, I was once accused of being a narcissist, simply because I had an opinion and was willing to defend it. And then it occurred to me that many people must feel this way about people having blogs, but not websites because the blog implies a candid style and god forbid we do that. We all have some chip on our shoulder apparently, and we're ready and willing to pick on the ones that are in plain view. (and I am not different or I wouldn't be in this textbox right now)

And I leave you Jamie (a.k.a. Jaime) with these questions:

Is this discussion even relevant when everyone and their mother (not mine thankfully) has a blog and they post whatever they like, whenever they like?

Does anybody give a damn, or has the blog simply become a scrapbook we all take for granted?

Do you judge people on what they write and how much they reveal?

Do you notice the silence on some people's blogs?

Should we judge the quiet ones as harshly as the chatty ones?

Is anyone reading this post?

Anybody home?

Someone?

?

Hmmm... relevant? I don't know. I think the fact that a large percentage of the populace now keeps their private journals on digital billboards is interesting at least.

Of course in the IMD we are a special case, for two reasons. First, our blogs are mandatory... the Movable Type is set up for us whether we want it or not. Therefore its hard to judge people on their silence, either in posts or in comments. Second, the IMD blogs are a funny case... the fact that they're "academic" makes people unsure about what they can/should make public.

And as to whether anyone gives a damn, my only evidence is circumstantial... when I write long text-based entries, whether or not I deem them important, I rarely get any comments (behold the exception to this rule!). However, as mentioned earlier, I recently posted an entry with a half-sentence of text and two pictures of bearded men. 8 comments. What I take from this is: there's no accounting for what people are listening to or for. So it can't hurt to put things out there, for others to enjoy, dislike, or ignore.

I think that the entry that you mention is an anomaly. The beards you presented are so powerful that they pull comments in from across the interwebs. Such is the power of the beard.

But seriously, blogging has become akin to thinking out loud, or talking on a cellphone. Sometimes it's hard to hear voices above the noise. And other times, the dude with a bluetooth headset saying hello is actually talking to you, and not to someone on the other end of a signal...