The Blogging Phenomenon

So I was thinking today about the whole blogging phenomenon. The Blog Herald lists the number of blogs created as of this month at over 100 million!! Obviously this is an obscene number and most of these blogs probably have few readers (unlike the astronomical number of readers I get here at Blogadocious!!), but this got me thinking of the blogs that I read and why I read them. There are so many different types of blogs and I do enjoy clicking the "Next Blog" button at the top of the page from time to time just to see what's out there, but there are few blogs that get me interested enough to make sure that I never miss a post. I know some people enjoy reading blogs for political commentary, religious thoughts, or just for pure comic value. I, however, find that I typically read the blogs of people I know rather than perusing the internet to find exciting new blogs waiting to be discovered. There are, however, some exceptions. I have a few blogs I read regularly that are from people I don't even know and I just find myself in a voyeuristic mode where I enjoy seeing what someone from a completely different part of the country with a completely different background thinks about life. In fact, in many ways I enjoy these blogs more than those of people that I do know. It's not as though I don't like the blogs of my friends, it's just that I see or talk to most of them on a fairly regular basis and there is much less intrigue. It is quite fascinating to see what some arbitrary person in the middle of Kentucky is thinking. It’s also interesting to read the blogs of friends of friends and on down the line, because I obviously don’t know them either.

My enjoyment extends to blogs that deal with thoughts on life rather than actual events that occur in a blogger’s life. Granted, this is not a strict rule, but those blogs that share ideas from a unique perspective are much more fascinating than the old “Today I went to the store and bought a head of lettuce” posts. It’s also a big bonus if the blogs cover a wide range of topics rather than just deal with one theme. This probably has a lot to do with the fact that I have adult A.D.D. and I can barely think about the same topic for more than 5 minutes. Plus I just like topics that deal with the unusual aspects of life from a unique perspective whether I agree with them or not.

As my mind continued on this exciting journey, I began to ponder the art of commenting on blogs. In my previous post I linked to this post on a blog that I sometimes read which had 110+ comments on it. As Courtney pointed out in her comment on my post, that is unreal! I could only dream of getting 109 comments on a post. So what is it that makes some people post and others just read and move on? Granted, I don’t post on every blog, but I do on most blogs that I read. There are, however, some that I just read from afar and never let my presence be known. I just like whole “fly on the wall” feeling on occasion. I can’t really put my finger on why I’m like this, so I’ll have to give it some more thought.

And the last bloggish thought I had was the purpose behind blogs. Personally, I write Blogadocious more for my personal entertainment and have no real purpose in it other than to share some of my thoughts and moments from my life that I would like to be able to look back on at a later date. But then again, since I know that I have people who read this, I can’t help but temper my comments and sometimes word them in such a way that I won’t give people the wrong impression or even so they don’t know what I’m really thinking. There is a small part of me that would like to have a blog that is anonymous so that I can say whatever I want no matter how politically incorrect, unpopular or honest they may be. Maybe I’ll just do that someday.

And this concludes my fantastic insight. Blog on…..