Monday, December 28, 2009

What This Is For

Time and again I had to ask myself if it's still worth keeping this blog alive. And for many of you who still bother to visit, you'd be perfectly forgiven to think that I'm just too phlegmatic to make any real decisions, and thus should be hung in the gallows of uncertainty and indecision. But please read with me through this one last post first before you do so :)

Hands up everyone out there who thinks that blogs are nothing more than avenues to win prizes these days. You see, I've grown disenchanted with the idea of having a blog, because social marketers were too quick to catch on with the idea of being able to disseminate free publicity without so much as to type out the word 'Contest'. I could see that as Marketing went up, Intimacy went down. Intimacy in the sense that you've actually put thought into your posts, in the sense that you mean what you say, in the sense that you are saying what you mean.

Oops, hold back your scorn for me first if I had offended you within just the first two paragraphs. I understand that I have no right to criticize what others choose to do with their own blogs, and I just want to make it clear that I'm not trying to diss anyone here. I'm merely making an observation, and whatever meaning you choose to read from these few lines is your own discretion.

Now if your hands are still up, you can put them down. Like I said, I could not see anymore reason to want to continue keeping this blog in existence. I don't post anything substantial anymore anyway, I thought to myself. But then I also realized that I don't always have to move along with the herd. The reason I got so bogged down was that I tried to write what others would want to read, and that probably gnawed away at my own intrinsic motivation to update the blog over time. I pondered about what the blog could be used for, and felt that it can still provide me with a means of self-reflection in reading over my own posts. And this self-reflection is unique because others can share in it.

So this blog would stay. If you had been reading from time to time, then by all means you're more than welcome to continue doing so. I appreciate your comments, and if it still applies I wish you a blessed and merry Christmas along with the customary Happy New Year :)

4 comments:

Rudi said...

The life cycle of the average blog:

1. Yay! I have a blog to share my thoughts with the world!

2. Yay! I am updating nearly every day with fervour and gusto!

3. Hmmm... I am updating occasionally.

4. Once a month.

5. Less.

6. I wonder if I should keep this going. Maybe I should post something introspective about the whole philosophy of sharing myself with the world.

7. I decide to keep it going.

8. Posts twice a week for the first month, then stops again.

9. 3 months later, repeat steps 6 through 9.

10. Eventually, a well-deserved and inevitable death.

Call my cynical, but all blogs are the same and all bloggers are the same. Which beckons the question: why bother?

Kee Ken said...

So I'm at stage 7 now? Not too shabby, haha.

Well, to me now I guess it doesn't really matter anymore whether the blog lives or dies. I'd think that I had been overdramatic with it and I've decided to kinda claim the blog back for myself and make it proprietary.

I'm not gonna worry anymore whether I'm contributing to the bloggingdom, but instead I'll just use the blog as I see fit.

Or at least, that's what I think I'm doing :D

And oh, thanks a bunch for commenting, you just made my post that much more interesting :)

Jon said...

My blog's not dead! I'm just at No.6 for an extended period.

My blog's turning 7 this year! woo hoo!

sca1lywag said...

its a blank canvas for you to share your brilliant thoughts to the world :P however inspired..