If A Post Is Made On A Blog And There's No One Around To Read It, Does It Still Have A Point
I am a member of a big chunk of the population that enjoys blogging. I am also, however, a member of the population that truly enjoys it for it’s journalistic and Editorial uses rather than the stereotypical “I got so wasted” or “look at this picture of my friend being stupid” uses you find on your average Xanga or MySpace page. Don’t get me wrong, I too am guilty of (and often enjoy) the occasional life update post, but it’s just not what blogging is about to me. What I really enjoy about it is when someone makes a post about something real. About how they saw something and it really made them think. It doesn’t have to be a life changing realization, just a realization. In addition to these realizations, I’m also a fan of editorials on products, movies, or news thats happening. Basically the point is that I want more from blogging than most of the people I know do.
The first blog that I actually created was with Xanga. At the time, A girl I was deeply falling for was using her xanga account to participate in religious and philosophical discussions on various user pages within the Xanga community. On several occasions, she allowed me to log in as her and make posts (as myself) adding to the debates. Overtime, my additions became so frequent that I decided it was time to create my own account. When I first did so (and for most of the time I had the account), I attempted to maintain my standards for blogging. I tried to make sure all my posts had a clear point or thought and attempted to make sure every person who viewed the posts could take something away from it. Whether it was links to a other articles around the net, downloads for games, videos, or just something to think about, I almost always attempted to keep it interesting and “comment-able” (yeah, I made it up… sue me). Since then I’ve gone through several different blogs. The problem though, is that no one else cares about them the way I do. The problem is that I can’t justify the effort anymore to create something worth reading if no one is reading and commenting on it.
In addition to my Xanga, MySpace, and Blogger accounts, I own a domain. I had pretty big plans for the domain too. My first attempt at creating a “substantial” blog was a project titled .AlbedoRed.Blog”. It was somewhat of a partnership between my girlfriend (now Ex) and myself. The site compiled handpicked news stories from around the web, reviews of movie trailers, and dvd / game release dates. I was pretty happy with what the site was, but after a few weeks of use, the effort and time needed became to much to continue with such a bleak response from the few readers. You can check out what remains of the abandoned project at by visiting the site (http://albedores.blogsite.org/).
After this site failed, I came up with a granger vision and purchased a new domain (http://www.albedopiasora.com). On this new site, I originally wanted to set up both a blog and a podcast that friends could read and listen to. No matter what, I was planning to make all the posts adhere to my high standards for blogging and keep them strictly to Journalistic and Editorial topics. I began creating the site and spend a long time on the look and functionality (including support for viewer comments). After failing to create my own comments system, I decided to integrate Blogger.com with my page to utilize their comments and began work on my site.
Unfortunately for me and all my efforts, it was too late. Everyone had already lost interest and disappeared from their Xanga accounts, why would they pay attention to my own blog? So, the new site was dead before it ever got off the ground. If you head over to the before mentioned address, you can see the first few posts I had created.
While I never really enjoyed writing essays in High School or College, I do truly enjoy writing. When I find a subject that I am passionate about, I will spend an excessive amount of time and energy on writing about it. I would love to pull my blog from the wreckage and begin writing again, but without anyone to care about it and respond with real thought and interest, I just simply don’t have the effort to do so. All too frequently I’ll be driving in my car, walking through a store, or watching something on television and I’ll hear something or witness something that makes me think. In my head I begin to have little brainstorms and discussions about the significants of the subject and I begin to formulate sentences that could turn into blog posts. Unfortunately, they never amount to anything because when I sit down in front of the computer to write, I just think to myself “what’s the point? No one is going to read this” and I abandon the post before it’s ever made.
For example, yesterday I went to see X3: The Last Stand. At the conclusion of the film, much like is done in theaters around the world, everyone stood up and began to walk out. Everyone, that is, except for me and one other viewer. He an I sat there watching through the entire credits. Out of everyone who was in the theater, he and I were the only one’s who knew about the “secret ending” (an extremely short, yet extremely significant scene following the credits). The fact that only two of us stayed spawned an idea for a blog post about a cultural divide between those of us “in the know” (about geek and tech stuff) and the general population. Whether people just didn’t know about the ending or simply didn’t care, I walked away from that movie with a completely different feeling than those who left as the credits began to roll. To make an already incredibly long story… less long, I never made the blog post.
Every time I sit down to write an actual thought filled post, I decide it’s not worth the effort. In fact, I began writing this post yesterday and abandoned it. Luckily I had saved it in a text file (as I always start my posts in a word processor) and I decided to continue it today. I guess the moral of the story is that I just wish we were all more active (like a year ago) and more importantly that I had a stronger readership and that they commented enough to fuel my passion for writing. It would be nice to actually find myself motivated enough to continue the work on AlbedoPiasora dot Com. But until then, I’ll probably be reduced to writing short blogs about what I did that day or other thoughtless “jibber jabber” (little reference to Boston Legal for you).
If you made it this far, I applaud you. I hope you find yourself well. I look forward to my 2 regulars reading the story and the one comment I’ll probably receive from one of them. Happy posting everyone…
posted by Christopher SchneseÂ
