Thinking about Blogging
I’ve been thinking a lot about blogging recently, especially after reading Catriona’s posting about personal blogging and taking a look at the 2amSomewhere site that she mentioned. Most of the blogs that I read are at least partly academic or political and I found the personal aspect of 2amSomewhere somewhat intriguing and a bit disturbing, so haven’t gone back to read it since. But, it did get me thinking.
We tend to think about blogs as new, and certainly teach them as being relatively new and developing their own communication protocols. What fascinates me, though, is not so much the form as the drive to communicate and that has existed for generations. Older generations of women in my family have written poetry or prose, pouring their hearts into the pages when no one else is around. In some instances the writers have asked an undertaking by trusted others to retrieve such works on their death, before partners or children discover the unheard cries therein. In other instances the writers have destroyed the works themselves long before death or discovery. Nevertheless, the need to pour their hearts out to the universe remains.
Many of my friends, being a younger generation than the women of my family, write songs. One friend has been writing for years. His best work comes when he is distressed about the injustice that he sees in the world around him. His band provides some outlet for his musical needs even though they only play in public a couple of times a year. That doesn’t seem to matter, though, and he has continued to compose songs even during those times when he hasn’t had a band to play with. The urge to keep writing songs remains.
Something inside many of us seems to drive us to communicate, sometimes telling people we don’t know at all things that we wouldn’t tell our nearest and dearest, other times just telling the paper or a small gathering of musical friends. Maybe this is part of the drive behind prayer for people who believe in a personal God – the need to communicate innermost thoughts and feelings to someone as a cathartic measure.
Yes, the technology can be interesting from an intellectual perspective, but what seems much more interesting are the drives that cause us to take up the technology and the ways that we use it to fill those needs.
Your Comments
Matthew Smith writes:
I think the link to Catriona’s post is http://circulatinglibrary.net/archives/the-pitfalls-and-pleasures-of-social-networking.
In my experience, personal blogging comes from a need to connect an inner experience with the world. Perhaps there is a need for validation, to be told that someone else feels the same way or that written concerns have value to others. This personal revelation is risky in case this validation is not received.
The risks of blogging are documented as the possibility of identity theft, online harassment or that employers or other people in power will have access to it. But there is a more personal risk of being ignored. I suppose this carries over to song-writing and poetry – especially when an audience for the work is not forthcoming while pop queens receive international adulation for shaking their booty.
An additional theory: when writing whether it be a blog or personal poetry, the author imagines an audience and is able to argue their case to this imagined audience. Perhaps they then switch places and become their own audience to be able to validate their own experience and thus process and resolve whatever issues they are dealing with. The publishing of this process on a blog or in a song opens up the possibility of also receiving validation from others.
Posted: 12 08 2008 - 10:00 | Permanent link to this comment
Lisa writes:
Some interesting points, Matt, thank you. I’m not sure that validation is always sought, especially where the writing is never made public. Though I can see that for many people this probably is one aspect of it. Certainly with song writing there is probably that desire for validation from like-minded people.
I do think that maybe you’re on to something with the imagined audience being a way of putting a case for validation or resolution. I certainly find that sometimes the only way that I can properly explore a thought is to argue it with someone else. Frequently I don’t want them to agree with me (and may not agree with the position myself), but it is a good way of developing an idea or working through the many facets of an issue. Writing for an imagined audience serves a similar function but without the immediate feedback.
I’m still interested, though, in why we feel this need for validation. Maybe the answer is quite mundane from a psychological perspective, but the cultural reinforcement and the ways we use technology to fill our needs hierarchy is probably just as interesting in its own right.
Posted: 27 08 2008 - 09:51 | Permanent link to this comment
2amsomewhere writes:
I’m the author of the blog you cited in this post. I had a couple of remarks to share.
Validation is a recurring theme in my blog. If you go back on the timeline to about two years ago, I began reading a collection of works that helped me to reconsider validation.
One of those works (Schnarch) was an unconventional book about committed monogamous relationships. The author argued that mainstream marital therapy was missing the point because it tried to reinforce other-based validation. His view was that over-reliance on validation from others was what killed the passion in relationships and kept people stuck in a state of emotional gridlock.
The roots of his writings are traceable to an older school of thought about family systems that used as a metric of healthiness the ability self-validate. The level of dependency, it was believed , was an aspect of the family itself and that one really wasn’t able to transcend that level until one became an adult and lived independently.
In other words, the very nature of families and human development guarantees the need for validation from others. The process of maturing incorporates the ability to self validate.
When I started my blog, I was definitely in a place where I relied heavily on the validation of others. As I began to read books on self-validation, I realigned the purpose of my blog as chronicle of one’s struggle to self-validate.
The blog became less of a place where I sought the approval of readers and more of a record to show where I had been, perhaps leaving a path of guidance to someone else who had faced similar struggles in silent desperation.
Drawing upon an incomplete essay by Julia Gray, the blog was the codification of a narrative, or personal myth, that would give meaning to struggle to break free of an existence adrift.
My site doesn’t draw that much traffic these days because I don’t post as frequently. I maybe get 20 visits a day. Some of that comes from RSS readers, but a lot of it comes from people doing keyword searches about sexless marriage, differentiation of self, marriage counseling, and things like that.
My hope is that even if the level of sharing is disturbing at times, they might realize that they are not on unexplored terrain. Through my struggles, they might find the inspiration to take charge of their own lives and find their direction.
—
2amsomewhere
Posted: 1 09 2008 - 08:19 | Permanent link to this comment
Lisa writes:
Thanks for your remarks 2amsomewhere. My comments about your blog were definitely not to criticise it in any way but merely a reflection on my own reading and writing patterns. Sometimes, however, as my posting indicates, the personal coincides with academic interest.
The difference between other-validation and self-validation that you raise is an interesting one, and while I probably agree with the idea that the ability to self-validate comes with growth and maturity as one reaches adulthood, I don’t see that as precluding at least a desire (possibly a need) for other-validation as part of healthy social living. Maybe the difference is that if you can self-validate, you are not dependent on other-validation and that is probably a good thing. I’m still not sure that a need for validation (be that self- or other-validation) is a necessary condition of the drive to blog, or write poetry or songs, though I don’t deny that it is part of the motivation for many people. I’m still in the process of thinking this through and appreciate your comments.
Just as a bit of a follow-up and as a matter of interest: I’m currently reading Naomi Baron’s “Always On: Language in an Online and Mobile World.” She cites two studies on the motivation to blog. The first one was the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which listed the top four as:
“to express themselves creatively
to document their personal experiences and share them with others
to stay in touch with friend and family
to share practical knowledge or skills with others” (111-12)
The second study she cites lists as their top five:
“update others on activities and whereabouts
express opinions to influence others
seek others’ opinions
‘think by writing’
release emotional tension” (112)
Posted: 19 09 2008 - 10:05 | Permanent link to this comment