The Point of a Blog

What is the point of a Blog?

They exist in different forms and genres. The most common seem to be personal blogs, functioning like personal diaries. In fact, I'd say in general they either function as diaries or as columns, as in newspaper and magazine editorials. And these can be divided into genres - writing blogs, film blogs, music blogs, cultural blogs, the list goes on.

The blogs I follow tend to be film related in the main. And these blogs always have some sort of personal aspect to them, in varying degrees. Whether it's Jeffrey Wells' opinion on the past year's films (where he includes aspects of his life) or advice given by peers and colleagues or just seeing how friends are doing beyond the limitations of Twitter (I've lost interest in Twitter now). This blog itself is an amalgam of a writing/film/personal blog. Little bits of my life I feel like sharing. Not foisting it upon people, of course. I hope it's not too boring but then again I'm not the most exciting person in the world.

I have had the odd rant in my blog - it's part of the way I deal with depression, which can really fuck me up on an epic scale at times. But I'm allowed. It's my blog. And people are entitled to rant on their own blogs as well. People are also entitled to make comments if they want, good or bad. It's a free world. And I can do the same in others' blogs. If I don't like what someone says, I'll deal with it in a hopefully adult way. Or ignore it.

One thing I won't do is get personal and slag that person off in a blog headline. There is no sarcastic font to make people see what you mean. You write it in a way that you intend. And if it's not the way you intend then you ought to correct yourself. This is a common occurrence on the web these days. The dispassionate nature of plain text. Words need context. If it's lost, flame wars break out over nothing. And it descends into the moronicism of an Aint It Cool News Talkback. But, if we're adult enough, we can back away and not slag people off from behind the safety of a keyboard. People seem to suddenly develop balls of steel on the web.

It's even worse when someone you thought was a friend does it to you.

So, fuck this. I'll keep blogging about stuff. Stuff I like. Stuff which affects me. And if people think it's boring, well fuck 'em. The point is to express one's self. Hopefully without sounding like a broken record.

As the good Mr David Bishop says, Onwards.