The blog paradox

I am confused. Everything I have read in my communications technology class and everyone I have talked with seems to indicate that people are reading less and less these days... Okay to be fair we are sifting through much more data but we accomplish this by skimming for facts and bullet points and charts.

Design standards for websites indicate that text heavy is not the way to go... So why blogs? I write a blog and I realize that of my 12 readers about 1 out of 12 actually will make it to the end of this entry.

I understand that if I post pictures or videos on my site they are more likely to be viewed than my words.

• I know that if I bullet or highlight my main points my readers will appreciate it, and yet I still go through the exercise of writing my thoughts out - not aimed at my audience but rather aimed at the traveling target in my head.

Blogging allows me to escape for a time from my day of crafted emails and painstakingly edited corporate PR pieces to just relax and type my thoughts as they flow onto the page I don't even need to use punctuation if I don't want to, although I find it has become a reflex - a poorly honed reflex, but a reflex nonetheless

So back to the question at hand, why the popularity of blogging. I didn't realize there was a large pent up demand to read tiny 10pt font on a tiny computer screen. I think the phenomenon can be tied into two things: our need for attention and our desire for community. I can't claim to be free from the taint of hubris, hell I am sometimes besmirched with the stain of avarice (please click on the ads on my page so I can make money). I like to think, however, that in my own small way I am sticking it to the system.

No my blog is not overly political, not too confrontational, I don't cover hot topics of the day (at least not very often), my blog is however the story of my life, my day to day thoughts, be they boring, funny or occasionally insightful they are mine and they are personal. No mass media would ever pick up my story. No made for TV movie will ever be created, no Hollywood movie ever created to tell my story, so it is up to me and me alone to shout it out. I may be yelling into the vacuum of cyberspace where my tone and inflection is drowned out by millions and millions of others doing the same thing, but at least I know that my voice is part of the cacophony of humanity and that is something.